The Philosophical Breakfast Club, by Laura J. Snyder
Title: The Philosophical Breakfast Club
Subtitle: Four Remarkable Friends who Transformed Science and Changed the World
Author: Laura J. Snyder
Publisher: Broadway Books
Format: ARC
Year: 2011
Pages: 368
Genre: History
Subgenres: History of Science, Biography
Challenge Information: None.
Full Disclosure: I won this in a GoodReads FirstReads giveaway.
Jacket Description
The Philosophical Breakfast Club recounts the life and work of four men who met as students at Cambridge University: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell, and Richard Jones. Recognizing that they shared a love of good science (as well as good food and drink) they began to meet on Sunday mornings to talk about the state of science in Britain and the world at large. Inspired by the great 17th century scientific reformer and political figure Francis, Bacon -- another former student of Cambridge -- the Philosophical Breakfast Club plotted to bring about a new scientific revolution.
And to a remarkable extent, they succeeded, even in ways they never intended.
Historian of science and philosopher Laura J. Snyder exposes the political passions, religious impulses, friendships, rivalries, and love of knowledge -- and power -- that drove these extraordinar men. Whewell (who not only invented the word "scientist," but also founded the fields of crystallography, mathematical evonomics, and the science of tides), Babbage (a mathematical genius who invented the modern computer), Herschel (who mapped the skies of the Southern Hemisphere and contributed to the invention of photography), and Jones (a curate who shaped the science of economics) were at the vanguard of the modernization of science.
This absorbing narrative of people, science, and ideas chronicles the intellectual revolution inaugurated by these men, one that continues to mold our understanding of the world around us and of our place within it. Drawing upon the voluminous correspondence between the four men over the fifty years of their work, Laura J. Snyder shows how friendship worked to spur the men on to greater accomplishments, and how it enabled them to transform science and help create the modern world.
My Review
I really enjoyed this volume, which serves as a sort of mosaic of science in England in the first two-thirds of the 19th century.
Snyder makes four men -- William Whewell, Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and Richard Jones -- the center of her narrative, but does not trace their lives chronologically. Instead, after some brief biographical sketches that bring the reader to the point where the four men were together at Cambridge, she breaks her narrative up by their fields on interest, addressing in turn chemistry, computers, economics, astronomy, the tides, surveying, photography, cryptography, and evolution. She also addresses the development of the scientific method, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Great Britain's 1851 Great Exhibition, and the conflict (or lack thereof) between the scientists' religious beliefs and scientific discoveries. In keeping with their own view of how science works, ever time she turned to a new field she placed the Club's efforts in context, providing historical background on the field and some anecdotes about the scientists who previously influenced the Breakfast Club and those who were influenced by the Breakfast Club in turn.
That strategy is why I call the book a mosaic -- though Snyder keeps the lives and works of Whewell, Babbage, Herschel, and Jones central, the four men are merely entry points to the larger body of scientific exploration and codification in the 19th century England. Snyder does this admirably, capturing the excitement of the time period, when it seemed that all the secrets of the natural world were on the brink of being unlocked.
I do have some quibbles. The book is rather myopic, conflating the sciences of England with all science worldwide. The final chapter is quite heavy-handed, with Snyder suddenly devolving into a rant against the separation between science and the humanities (a separation she simply assumes that her readers will agree exists). But overall this book was a great deal of fun: accessible, informative, and vibrant in its depictions of the mood of the age and the characters of the men who drove it.
My Rating
Overall Satisfaction: ★★★★1/2
Books I was reminded of: The Anatomy of Wonder, by Richard Holmes (though only in theory, because I haven't read it yet, lol)
Will I read more by this author? If the topic interests me.