Newton: The Making of Genius

By Patricia Fara

Book Overview

Isaac Newton has become an intellectual avatar for our modern age, the man who, as even children know, was inspired to codify nature's laws by watching an apple fall from a tree. Yet Newton devoted much of his energy to deciphering the mysteries of alchemy, theology, and ancient chronology. How did a man who was at first obscure to all but a few esoteric natural philosophers and Cambridge scholars, was preoccupied with investigations of millennial prophecies, and spent decades as Master of the London Mint become famous as the world's first great scientist? Patricia Fara demonstrates that Newton's reputation, surprisingly limited in his day, was carefully cultivated by devoted followers so that Newton's prestige became inseparable from the explosive growth of science itself.

Newton: The Making of Genius is not a conventional biography of the man but a cultural history of the interrelated origins of modern science, the concept of genius, and the phenomenon of fame. Beginning with the eighteenth century, when the word "scientist" had not even been coined, Fara reveals how the rise of Isaac Newton's status was inextricably linked to the development of science. His very surname has acquired brand-name-like associations with science, genius, and Britishness--Apple Computers used it for an ill-fated companion to the Mac, and Margaret Thatcher has his image in her coat of arms.

Fara argues that Newton's escalating fame was intertwined with larger cultural changes: promoting him posthumously as a scientific genius was strategically useful for ambitious men who wanted to advertise the power of science. Because his reputation has been repeatedly reinterpreted, Newton has become an iconic figure who exists in several forms. His image has been so malleable, in fact, that we do not even reliably know what he looked like.

Newton's apotheosis was made possible by the consumer revolution that swept through the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century. His image adorned the walls, china, and ornamental coinage of socially aspiring British consumers seeking to identify themselves with this very smart man. Traditional impulses to saint worship were transformed into altogether new phenomena: commercialized fame and scientific genius, a secularized version of sanctity. Handsomely illustrated and engagingly written, this is an eye-opening history of the way Newton became a cultural icon whose ideas spread throughout the world and pervaded every aspect of life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 023112807X
• ISBN13: 9780231128070
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Newton

This is great book for anyone who is interested in going deeper than high school history. It is well written and takes you into the life of one of the greatest minds this world has known. I was surprised by my own ignorance. I thought he was a scientist. There was no such thing at the time. Newton was a philosopher of nature.

As the author says, a biography it is not.......

This book was a surprise to me. As Fara points out, the work is not biographical nor intended to be. It appeals as an exhaustively researched treatment of 17th and 18th century academic and scientific life in western Europe, of which Newton is portrayed as a centrepiece. Interestingly, there is considerable focus on public image, public perception, academic politics and international academic rivalry. Much work also goes into the realisation of Newton as indelible national hero....the statues, paintings, medallions , anniversary celebrations, etc. Entire academic careers rose or fell on whether one resided in the Newtonian camp or not, and a whole section of the book goes to discussion on the nature of genius itself. Whilst I was expecting to get a better personal picture of Newton the man, the book makes clear how difficult this may be, given that his life and work are now 3 centuries past. That, and the fact that countless biographies of Newton already exist, many painting quite different pictures of the man, each from the somewhat subjective brush of particular biographers. Very readable, enjoyable and breathtakingly well researched.

How we changed Newton

Most people see that Newton changed the world - creating a scientific world, a rational world, one free of superstition and the searching for vain outcomes (such as those of alchemy). There is no doubt that Newton's endeavours did bring a lot of this to pass. But, did he intend that? Newton was a complex character - part of which was an alchemist, part of which was a futurist basing his expectations on interpretations of Biblical verses. In this book we learn how Newton's reputation changed, how Principia lead the world in its understanding of physics. Principia was less successful with metaphysics, which was eventually exposed by Einstein. But that same world turned a blind eye to other aspects of Newton - things that Newton himself took as seriously - perhaps even more so - than the physics on which his reputation now rests. I took this book up because for a while I had been wanting to read more of the enigmatic character that Newton was. But this is not a biography. It is a component of the study of the history of science. I found it fascinating but the true Newton still waits for me somewhere else. recommended other reading: Ramunujan - Robert Kanigal The Man Who Loved only Numbers - Paul Hoffmann