A World On Fire: A Heretic, An Aristocrat and the Race to Discover Oxygen - Hardcover

Jackson, Joe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670034347 ISBN 13: 9780670034345

Publisher: Viking Press Inc, 2005

Synopsis

Traces the breakthrough discovery of oxygen at the end of the 1700s by a pair of rival scientists, describing how English dissenter Joseph Priestley and French aristocrat Antoine Lavoisier waged a fierce competition to solve the "riddle of air" in spite of such historical challenges as the American Revolution and the storming of the Bastille. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

This tale of eminent scientists victimized by political ideology is told with passion and a splendid attention to vivid detail. (Paul Johnson, author of "Modern Times")

An exhilarating narrative, sweeping us through great discoveries and international rivalries, yet strengthened by meticulous research and analysis. (Jenny Uglow, author of The Lunar Men)

This tale of eminent scientists victimized by political ideology is told with passion and a splendid attention to vivid detail. (Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times)

Synopsis:

A gripping account of a key moment in the history of science, set against a revolutionary age. In the final decades of the 1700s, as the threat of revolution began to dim the radiance of the Enlightenment, two brilliant scientists simultaneously achieved a breakthrough that would alter the course of human thought in history: they discovered oxygen. The humble English dissenter Joseph Priestley and the French aristocrat Antoine Lavoisier were unlikely competitors, but their fierce rivalry to solve the "riddle of air" became a kind of 18th century space race, a contest made all the more exciting by the tumult of the time. In "A World On Fire", acclaimed writer Joe Jackson vividly brings to life the seismic intellectual and political shifts that ushered in modern science. Set against the conflagrations of the American Revolution, the storming of the Bastille and the Reign of Terror, Jackson's narrative deftly weaves together biography, history, science and politics. With their discoveries inside their laboratories and the tragedy of their downfalls, Priestley and Lavoisier epitomise the plight of the scientist in the modern age.

With "A World On Fire", Jackson has transformed their history into a spellbinding work of narrative non-fiction.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Press Inc
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0670034347
• ISBN 13: 9780670034345
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432