'The Invention of Air' by Steven Johnson
[Cross-posting latest book summary I put out on LinkedIn.]
Steven Johnson books always have a certain style about them (colloquial techie is my best description) and they consistently approach their topics from a systems perspective that incorporates multiple disciplines and frames of reference to illuminate a more connected whole. Johnson calls this the "long zoom". It is really this perspective rather than the individual subjects themselves that appear to be the organizing principle in all his work.
The Invention of Air (http://amzn.com/1594488525) is a short but quite thoughtful book which focuses on Joseph Priestley, who was a prominent and influential person in England, America and France during the late 18th century but less known and appreciated now. I can certainly state that I was surprised about how little I knew regarding the broad scope and impact of his life.
Given the author's ongoing intellectual preoccupations, Priestley is surely a natural subject (and perhaps avatar) for Johnson. Between 1765 and his death in 1804, Priestley simultaneously engaged in ground breaking scientific research on chemistry and electricity, while writing and speaking widely on political thought and religious/ethical philosophy (he was a minister and founder of Unitarianism). He also had a strong - if indirect - influence on the American Revolution and the political challenges of its aftermath through his friendships with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush. In his 'spare' time, he invented soda water too.
These successes did not come without their challenges as Priestley was uncompromisingly forthright in expressing his views despite sometimes violent opposition. Finally, this forced him to effectively escape from his native England for America but then he quickly become something of an outcast there as he was caught up in the post-revolution political struggles between Adams and Jefferson.
Johnson covers this whole saga very nicely with important insights about how the capacity of at least some of America's founders to embrace/promote the expansion of scientific, political and ethical progress in a holistic and forward thinking way now appears to be lost from the country's political tradition. There is a lot of other interesting material in the book as well. I especially liked the commentary on how energy flows and their relative changes over time affect the evolution of cultures.
In addition to The Invention of Air, I would also recommend Johnson's The Ghost Map (http://amzn.com/1594489254) which examines the learnings from the 1854 cholera epidemic in London.
