Scan barcode
A review by jhoiraartificer
The Map That Changed the World: The Tale of William Smith and the Birth of a Science by Simon Winchester
Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.
I really, really wanted to read this book. Who wouldn't want to learn about the first large-scale geological map created? And yet, I found the book absolutely insufferable in the most early-2000 Rational Thinker kind of way (as it turns out, published 2001, so this impression of mine was spot on). Not so much the turgid prose (though it definitely has that), but the incessant denigration of religion and, in practice, the sheer fact that scientific 'knowledge' was different back then.
If he had confined himself to a brief explanation of the religious basis of prior scientific understanding, even in a condescending way, I could have dealt with it. However, I was reading sentences like "So even though William Smith was brought up in a society still in the firm grip of purblind churchly certainty, his scientific training—such as it was—allowed for a measure of liberality." nearly every other page. As it turns out, it's possible to explain prior beliefs about the origins of fossils without slagging off hundreds of years of peoples' best attempts to understand the world.
I'm sure there is at least a book's worth of information on both William Smith and the origins of the science of geology... but this isn't it. Hoping I can find a better one another time.
If he had confined himself to a brief explanation of the religious basis of prior scientific understanding, even in a condescending way, I could have dealt with it. However, I was reading sentences like "So even though William Smith was brought up in a society still in the firm grip of purblind churchly certainty, his scientific training—such as it was—allowed for a measure of liberality." nearly every other page. As it turns out, it's possible to explain prior beliefs about the origins of fossils without slagging off hundreds of years of peoples' best attempts to understand the world.
I'm sure there is at least a book's worth of information on both William Smith and the origins of the science of geology... but this isn't it. Hoping I can find a better one another time.