Circulation: William Harvey’s Revolutionary Idea - Hardcover

Wright, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701185732 ISBN 13: 9780701185732

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2012

Synopsis

Diminutive, brilliant and choleric, William Harvey had a huge impact on anatomy and modern biology. Arguably the greatest Englishman in the history of science after Newton and Darwin, Harvey's obsessive quest to understand the movement of the blood overturned beliefs held by anatomists and physicians since Roman times. His circulation theory was as controversial in its day as Copernicus' idea that the earth revolved around the sun.

Set in the beating heart of late Renaissance London, Thomas Wright's vivid and visceral biography shows how Harvey drew inspiration not only from his dissections and vivisections, but also from the world around him: from England's bustling trade networks to technological developments of the time. It features a dramatic cast of historical characters, including Francis Bacon, England's Lord Chancellor and a recalcitrant patient of Harvey's; John Donne, a poet and preacher fascinated with anatomy and the human heart; and King Charles I, Harvey's beloved patron and witness to many of his experiments.

Harvey's circulation theory, in turn, permeated and altered the culture and language of its time, influencing poets and economists. To the dismay of the arch-Royalist Harvey, it also encouraged radical political ideas - and just as cherished anatomical orthodoxies could be toppled, so was the King during the Civil War. In more ways than one, Harvey's idea was truly revolutionary, yet astonishingly, it gained currency in his lifetime.

Circulation charts the remarkable rise of a yeoman's son to the position of King's physician, offers a fresh interpretation of his ideas, and above all, celebrates a brilliant mind that epitomized a rich moment in England's intellectual history.

About this title

Review:

"Thomas Wright's book opens brilliantly and bloodily and continues - forgive the pun - in the same vein... A captivating intellectually gripping journey into our country's scientific past" (Druin Burch Mail on Sunday)

"Thomas Wright's lively little book on Harvey's revolutionary idea is a panegyric to the man's whirring mind, and to the excitements of thinking more generally" (Helen Brown Daily Telegraph)

"A concise, skilful and often eloquent book" (Charles Nicholl The Guardian)

"In Circulation, Wright tells a good story, warts and all" (Duncan Wu Independent)

"Lives that look successful from the outside may seem failures to those who live them. Thomas Wright’s acute, imaginative book suggests William Harvey’s life was like that" (John Carey Sunday Times)

Book Description:

Arguably the greatest Englishman in the history of science after Isaac Newton, a vivid and visceral biography of William Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, and brilliant portrait of seventeenth-century thought and imagination, by the quirky, charming author of Oscar's Books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0701185732
• ISBN 13: 9780701185732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272