A World on Fire : A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen
Author(s): Joe Jackson
Like Charles Seifes "Zero" and Dava Sobels "Longitude," this passionate intellectual history is the story of the intersection of science and the human, in this case the rivals who discovered oxygen in the late 1700s. That breakthrough changed the world as radically as those of Newton and Darwin but was at first eclipsed by revolution and reaction. In chronicling the triumph and ruin of the English freethinker Joseph Priestley and the French nobleman Antoine Lavoisierthe former exiled, the latter executed on the guillotine"A World on Fire" illustrates the perilous place of science in an age of unreason. First published 2005.
General Information
- :
- : Penguin Putnam Inc
- : Penguin USA
- : 0.399
- : 01 March 2007
- : United States
- : books
Other Specifications
- : Joe Jackson
- : Paperback
- : annotated edition
- : 546.721
- : 432
- : illustrations
More About The Product
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")
