Rating: 
Summary: Weaves together the science and history of the time
Review: "Ingenious Pursuits" follows the scientific community of Britain through the second half of the 1600's, with a little spillover into the early 1700's. Jardine has pulled off quite a feat here: she weaves together the interconnected stories of medicine, physics, astronomy, cartography, anatomy, chemistry, biology and botany, along with a clear look at the society in which the key figures moved.Most histories of this period that deal with science at all fall into a couple of easily defined categories. They may take a single thread and follow it: there are many accounts of the discovery of calculus, for example, that discuss Fermat, Descartes, Leibniz and Newton. These books shed only a tangential light on the social background and say little or nothing about the state of the rest of science. Other books may neglect the details of the science in order to convey the society; or may provide biographies of individual figures. Jardine points out one of the dangers in this last approach: Robert Boyle's first biographer decided to focus primarily on his contributions to chemistry, and actually destroyed much source material related to other interests of his. Jardine's approach here is to give a chapter to each of several fields, and trace the history of the field over fifty or sixty years. The first chapter, for example, covers astronomy, including the identification of Halley's comet and the founding of the Greenwich Observatory. Once the players are introduced, the reader finds them recurring over and over again in subsequent chapters; this is what unifies the book. By the end of the book the effect is that Hooke, Boyle, Newton, Halley, Flamsteed, Oldenburg and the rest are so familiar that the stories are strongly coloured by the personalities and politics involved, adding another interesting layer to an already fascinating history. The Royal Society, which was founded in 1660, was of course a key player in all of this, and Jardine gives a good sense of both the gentlemanly biasses of the group (and the times) and the political complications of its work. For example, Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle, despite having an able mind and a great interest in science, was restricted by her gender from scientific life outside her salon; and it was also clear that only "gentlemen" could really participate. On the political side, Oldenburg, the first secretary of the R.S., got in trouble because of his voluminous correspondence with scientists on the continent in countries with which England was periodically at war. Jardine includes a very useful short chapter of capsule biographies of key figures at the end of the book. One thing she does not include that would have been useful is a chronology, either in timeline form or just as a list. This would be handy as a skeleton for the information in the book. The only other omission I regret is that, as another reviewer here has noted, there is not always a great deal of detail about the science itself. This is a result of Jardine's focus: she talks about the airpump experiments, for example, rather than how the airpump itself worked. These are minor shortcomings, however, and I strongly recommend the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Incoherent
Review: Awful. The book is simply a large collection of facts and quotations stuck together with overblown generalizations. It looks as though she collected her research on index card and then insisted on using each and every one regardless of its relevance or interest. She does come up with the odd interesting fact, but they aren't worth the effort of having to wade through all the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Incoherent
Review: Awful. The book is simply a large collection of facts and quotations stuck together with overblown generalizations. It looks as though she collected her research on index card and then insisted on using each and every one regardless of its relevance or interest. She does come up with the odd interesting fact, but they aren't worth the effort of having to wade through all the rest.
Rating: 
Summary: Insights Into A Fascinating Period Of Scientific History
Review: I found myself really wanting to like this book, but not able to get as excited about it as the subject matter probably deserves. Jardine writes extremely well, but I felt that the repetitions -- which she warns of -- give the possibly mistaken impression that this was put together from notes for a series of lectures. Personally, I could have read a much longer book on the topic. But maybe what we see here is an abridged version of what she had in mind. But, try it anyway. This was a fascinating period of scientific history, largely because so much of what was discovered was found by a combination of chance and luck, rather than any careful methodology. It's remarkably good on the subject of the much underappreciated Hooke, and reminds you that Halley was a remarkable character, famous for more than just 'his comet.' The science of the period is presented with great clarity -- more so than the amateur tinkerers themselves were able to do -- and provides some interesting insights into such topics as the rather shabby origins of the Ashmolean Museum, chronometers, the first diving bells, early microscopy, the design of St. Paul's cathedral, the inspirations for Newton's great works on celestial motion, not to mention the reckless self-medication practised in the period. Oddly, most of the illustrations appear in both black-and-white and in color plates, an oddity that the publisher might care to reconsider.
Rating:
Summary: An unmissable work for scholar and general reader alike
Review: In her latest book, Lisa Jardine proves a fascinating guide as she leads us through the scientific revolution. She has chosen a period populated by a truly engaging cast of characters, each of whom Jardine brings fully to life, presenting the work of Hooke, Wren, Newton and many others in its social context. The result is a unique insight into the 17th century, offering something to interest both experts and the general reader. Professor Jardine's insistence that science and art have been artificially sundered illuminates both past and present: her protagonists straddle the two realms with ease, and suggest that the separation of the disciplines in the public imagination is wholly unjustified. Professor Jardine is also keen to demonstrate that the notion of the lone scientist making breakthroughs in isolation is a myth - throughout history, scientists have relied upon the work of others, whether or not this previous work has been officially recognised. Jardine, a consummate communicator of complex ideas, manages to both advance her theories, and entertain the reader - an achievement which should not be underestimated, resulting in a truly remarkable work of scholarship.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting history of the Royal Society
Review: Ingenious Pursuits was difficult to finish. What I enjoyed most about this book is the history of the Royal Society (the personalities and achievements of its members, and its influence on scientific activity throughout the world). I was extremely disappointed and shocked that there is no reference in the chapter on time-keeping to Harrison's contributions to the Longitude problem.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting bits and pieces, yet lacks cohesion
Review: Jardine's book offers many interesting facts and details of the day-to-day lives of those that made significant contributions to modern astronomy, medicine, architecture, and other fields. Among her characters are Newton, Flamsteed, Hooke, Boyle and Harvey. What is lacking is an overall sense of cohesion throughout the book. Jardine seems to have tried to take a more human approach to these scientific developments and developers by focusing on their personal lives, correspondence, and social interactions. While certainly valuable, these details provide only one small aspect of the scientific revolution and ignore the inventions themselves in favor of the circumstances surrounding them. The reader is unable to experience the excitement and mystery of discovery and invention which must have played an equally powerful part in motivating these "Ingenious Pursuits". For those looking for a wide variety of historical tidbits surrounding the scientific revolution, this book may be for you. For those, however, with a more substantial interest in the scientific developments of the mid- to late-seventeenth century, keep looking.
Rating:
Summary: A good book with a few problems
Review: Lisa Jardine, who by the way is Jacob Bronowski's daughter, has written a lucid commentary on the rise of science in the late 17th Century. Her main thesis is to show the social interactions that fuel scientific investigation. The book succeeds in showing that science is not the lonely pursuit of societal misfits as so often characterized in the popular culture, but that of fertile social interactions between men and women of science. (Yes there are a few women here, though they necessarily remained behind the scenes due to the strict social conventions of the time.) Ms Jardine presents us with an exciting cast of characters, and in fact, many are the same folks inhabiting Ian Pears great novel, The Instance of the Fingerpost. This was truly an exciting period in the development of science. We have Robert Hooke, experimenting on himself with emetics and purgatives loaded with antimony, arsenic, mercury and a host of weird botanical extracts. In his diary, he complains of misty vision and ringing in the ears, so to cure these symptoms, he takes more of the same. The symptoms of course are those of heavy metal poisoning. Interestingly, this was the age of "holistic" medicine, where the whole body was treated and where the cures did not target specific symptoms and maladies. There is Boyle with his vacuum chamber snuffing out little critters in front of the Royal Society. Not to be outdone by his evacuated fauna, he himself went into a chamber to be evacuated. Lucky him -- the system failed. Some of this group of eminent scientists did have serious qualms on the common practice of dissecting live dogs (vivisection). This was in the age before anesthesia. I found it interesting that Jardine, near the end of the book, comments that this group (largely English with a few Continentals thrown in for good measure) was heavily focused on biology and classification. This was the great era of collecting of biological samples and the focus was not on physics, which was ultimately to be the hinge pin of modern science. I disagree and feel that this focus on classification pointed the way for Charles Darwin, and he had as much to do with the advance of science in the 20th Century as any physicist. I would have liked more explanations of some of the science and technology being discussed. Jardine assumes that everyone knows how a quadrant works. Boyle's engine is explained in one sentence. Most of the workings of the science goes unexplained. There is no explanation of Hooke's watch balance though it consumes much of several chapters. Most of the technology is skipped over. Granted this is not the focus of the book, but much of this knowledge remains above the level of even the serious amateur science reader. My suspicions are the lack of information in this area is the result of publishers editing. (Hey -- No one wants all that crap!) Another problem is that the cast of characters is so large that the book skips along from person to person and experiment to experiment without much depth. Despite these structural shortcomings the book is a good read. I The Instance of the Fingerpost by Ian Pears, which goes a long way to giving one the flavor of the science and of having lived in this period of time.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Look at the Scientific Revolution
Review: This is a fantastic book that makes great usage of first-hand quotes, pictures and other original source information to provide a look at the interactions between the great scientists of 1600's and 1700's that was the Scientific Revolution. Ms. Jardine doesn't simply provide a history of a single organization, although she spends a lot of time with the Royal Society of London, or a single individual, although Hooke and Newton figure prominently, or a defining event, although the Great Fire in London is brought up on multiple occasions. Ms. Jardine doesn't focus on any one area, but instead provides the reader with the flavor of the Scientific Revolution, instilling an understanding of the way that these great minds interacted, and how they worked both with and against one another in the race for discovery. In the end the author winds the reader through a description of how astronomy, medicine, taxonomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics and a multitude of other fields all intertwined to create the scientific revolution. It was the actions of the scientists as travelers, architects, authors and even guinea pigs that set the stage for the growth in our understanding of the natural world. Ms. Jardine tells us these tales in an unassuming manner, without putting forth a thesis, thereby allowing the reader to create their own thoughts on the matter. For the epilogue, she tells a similar story of Watson & Crick's discovery of DNA, thereby showing that the same round-about manner of discovery and development is an important element of modern science. This is a good book that looks at this important period of time in a manner just different enough from other existing books to make it very much worth reading. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating book about the flowering of science
Review: This is a somewhat episodic historic of a critical period in the scientific revolution, when the Royal Society was in full flower with Newton, Halley, Hooke, Flamsteed, and other luminaries ushering in the era of scientific discovery that led to our science (and society) today. Each chapter focuses on a different topic: planetary astronomy, measurement, chemistry, microscopy, etc. This is a distinctive approach with both advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that each chapter is a focused little history, easy to follow and to understand. The disadvantage is that incidents that bear in more than one area tend to be discussed repetitively, which becomes a little confusing at times. However, perhaps this helps to emphasis Jardine's thesis: that this was an era when the men of intellect did not categorize themselves into branches of science, or even between science and art. So Hooke, Newton, and some others appear in many chapters in many areas of inquiry. All in all, it's a very readable and interesting book with numerous illustrations, though strangely some of the illustrations appear both as black-and-white illustrations with the text and as inserted color plates. It's not clear what the point of that is. Still, a fascinating and readable book about the flowering of science.
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