On a Grander Scale by Lisa Jardine

Christopher Wren (1632-1723) is famous as an architect. In particular, he is known for the mark he made on the architectural landscape of London after the Great Fire of 1666. St. Paul’s cathedral, where he is buried, may be the crowning example of his work, but he designed and built many churches and public buildings in what may have been an early model for a modern architectural and construction firm.

As any biographer of Wren must, Lisa Jardine covers his career as an architect in On a Grander Scale. She also emphasizes other aspects of his life, specifically the effect political upheaval may have had on his personal outlook and career, and his involvement in scientific pursuits leading to the establishment of the Royal Society.

Wren has a privileged lifestyle as a child. His father (also Christopher) and uncle had posts as Anglican clergy that brought the close to Charles I. Wren spent some important years of his childhood in a house in the walls of Whitehall. His family remained royalists during the Commonwealth and Protectorate periods, leaving them little access to the favored clerical and political positions they had enjoyed. The young Wren effectively operated as a secretary and assistant to academically minded, ousted royalists who turned to science and invention to establish their fortunes. His mathematical sharpness, mechanical handiness, and facility for drawing gained him favor in this group of Renaissance physicians, physicists, chemists and astronomers. While still a young man, he joined them as a peer and gained an appointment as an astronomy professor.

Wren remained active in these scientific circles, even when he was much in demand as an architect and royal construction manager (Surveyor-General of the King’s Works). With his good friend Robert Hooke (curator of experiments for the Royal Society as well as a designer in Wren’s office), he looked for opportunities to incorporate scientific study into buildings. The work of the precursor of the Royal Society was very collaborative, and Jardine shows how Wren took that into his later scientific and architectural practices. His willingness to collaborate with people he trusted was probably a contributing factor to his success as an administrator of so many building, scientific, business, public and political projects.

When the monarchy was restored, Charles II attempted to reward those who had been loyal to his father, or their sons. Wren never became greatly wealthy or powerful through preferment, but he did rise to some prominence and had a successful career in public service. Charles I made him Surveyor-General, and he was reappointed by James II, co-monarchs William and Mary, Queen Anne, and George I. He was charming, astute, cautious and conscientious, which served him well on his long career. He was perhaps too cautious (or upright), because he never gained the wealth many of his mentors and peers achieved.

Jardine shows how Wren was among a group of men who pinned their hopes on a restored monarchy that was never as glorious as they hoped it would be. Even so, Wren was resourceful, as were his family and sponsors, and he rose to a career that his talent for science and hard work made possible. She sets him in the context of his time and particularly of his relationships. These relationships were with other men whose fathers fell from favor with the monarchy, mentors and peers in the scientific community (especially his close friend Hooke), and trusted assistants in his architectural practice. Wren is regarded as genius, and Jardine would agree, but he is also very much a part of a community of similar people who, to varying degrees, shared his fate and aided his success.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Descarte’s Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel

The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance by Paul Robert Walker

The Science of Leonardo by Fritjof Capra

Jardine, Lisa. On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Christopher Wren. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.

The Pinball Effect by James Burke

I originally posted this review at Infrastructure Watch, where I write about civil infrastructure, the environment and other matters of technology.

Burke, James. The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Make the Carburetor Possible—and Other Journeys Through Knowledge. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996.

Reading The Pinball Effect may leave you feeling like a pinball, bouncing from one thing to another quickly. In places, it’s like a bee, tasting many flowers, but never lingering on one.

Burke is more interested in the links between ideas, innovations and inventions. He touches on many of the important technologies, science, events and movements from a broad section of history, but his subject is the more elusive connections between them.

To Burke, all knowledge is linked, so it doesn’t matter where you start. He starts with hairdressing, which leads to improvements in cruise ships. Before the journey is through, he touches on steam power, the major scientific breakthroughs of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, several political and religious movements of that time, Robin Hood, fairy tales and the telephone. That is just a fraction of the nodes on Burke’s web of knowledge.

Burke further indicates the web-like linkages between ideas by including “gateways” in his book. These marginal notations serve as a print version of a hyperlink. The book bounces around plenty if you read it straight through, so the gateways amount to a gimmick. I wasn’t tempted to read the book in any more than one of the 447 ways made possible by the gateways. If you’d like to flip back to a previous, related section, the gateways will save you a trip to the index.

The book is interesting, especially as a quick survey of the ideas that have shaped our history, especially our science and technology. It is also disorienting. Burke tries to capture the strings on the web of knowledge, the links between ideas, but it seems the one can only really see the nodes, the particular events of history and inventions. It is something like connect-the dots. Burke can show us many dots, and he does, and indicate that they are connected by leaping from one to the next, usually sensibly, but to some degree, it is still up to the reader to draw the connections.

Order this book here.

What I Read (4)

Date: July 3, 2005
Title: Toxic Success
Author: Paul Pearsall
Thoughts: Pearsall advocates a life of contentment, calm and connection; sweet success as opposed to “normal” success. I have a dose of the toxic. I’d like to revisit this book sometime and see if and how my success sweetens.

Date: July 10, 2005
Title: The Five Love Languages
Author: Gary Chapman
Thoughts: I’d like to read this book again, review if my assessment of certain peoples’ love languages is correct and see how I’m doing at another time.

Date: July 30, 2005
Title: Into the Depths of God
Author: Calvin Miller
Thoughts: “The number one sin many Christians may need to confess is the sin of carrying guilt. When we carry guilt for confessed sin, we are saying that the cross was too small to cover our own sin” (quote from the book).

Date: August 7, 2005
Title: Girl, 15, Charming But Insane
Author: Sue Limb
Thoughts: I liked this book. Funny. Not too painful.

Date: August 13, 2005
Title: The Gospel of Mark (The Holy Bible, NKJV)
Thoughts: “And he looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said ‘Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother’” (Mark 3:34).

Date: August 19, 2005
Title: Steam: The Untold Story of America’s First Great Invention
Author: Andrea Sutcliffe
Thoughts: It seems to me that Fitch and Rumsey were within reach of their fortunes, and could have grasped them, if they had not been sidetracked by pursuing fame. I the fame would have come with the fortune.

Date: August 26, 2005
Title: The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance
Author: Paul Robert Walker
Thoughts: Another book of rivalry. A nicer story, though, because these men continued to master and improve their work in the midst of their rivalry. The new fame came more from excellent work than from grand claims, though they made grand claims, too.

Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon

Raphael, Jordan, and Tom Spurgeon. Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2003.


This biography of writer, editor and promoter Stan Lee is also a history of comics, particularly Marvel comics. Lee’s long career with Marvel, especially as its public face, has made them inseparable.

If you’re interested in the history of American comics, Lee’s career is worth considering. He started in the industry shortly after it became a popular media as a gopher for Captain America creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Soon he was editor of a line of comics, which he actively worked on for parts of four decades before moving on to becoming the public face of comics and less successful efforts in other media.

Lee is best known for overseeing a revolution in comics in the 1960s. He introduced characters that were as notable for their flaws and human frailties as for their extraordinary abilities. He took elements from genres a varied as romance and giant monster stories to create relatable superheroes. This sparked a creative revival for the both Lee and the industry.

Lee is a great promoter and salesman, and one of his most daring creations has been his own public image. Raphael and Spurgeon are careful not to be caught up in the hype while still recognizing their subject’s contribution to popular culture and particularly to the characters he oversaw.

One of the interesting things that come out of the book, though the authors don’t focus on it directly, is Lee’s place as a writer. He entertained dreams of writing novels and screenplays, but didn’t. He only wrote one full screenplay and seemed to think it was an onerous chore. During his creative heyday in comics, the Marvel method involved Lee writing story concepts and synopses that were fleshed out by the artists with him adding the dialogue to the drawn pages. The system worked well for Marvel financially and seems to have been Lee’s forte.

The authors recognize this in summarizing Lee’s career. They say he may have been the greatest comic book editor ever. His famous creative contributions were collaborative efforts with artists and he got consistent quality from lesser contributors. He kept a marginal comics publisher going through tough time until he and others were ready start a creative renaissance in their medium.

Editor can be an inglorious position. The title suggests a secondary position to the writer and artist, but at his height he was very directly involve in the creation of Marvel comics. His ability to manage a burgeoning, collaborative, creative enterprise made the Marvel revolution possible.

Lee’s contribution as a writer, editor, creator and collaborator are obscured by his career as the public face of Marvel. He is a natural promoter and, some might fairly say, glory hound. His rise to celebrity almost necessitated the minimization of others contributions, which lead to strained relationships with his friends and the industry he represents. His public persona has cast a shadow on his career that both darkens his reputation and obscures the real value of his creative work.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in these fictional takes on comics history
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer

75 Book Reviews Posted on Keenan’s Book Reviews

We’ve posted reviews of 75 books on this blog so far. The most recent 25 are listed below in alphabetical order by title.

6-Day Body Makeover by Michael Thurmond
Developing the Leader Within by John C. Maxwell
The Faith of JFK edited by T. S. Settel
The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance by Paul Robert Walker
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Fortune’s Formula by William Poundstone
Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb
God and Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor
The Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Matthew
How Full is Your Bucket by Tom Rath
How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard
How to Write a Manual by Elizabeth Slatkin
Into the Depths of God by Calvin Miller
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller, Dave Jenkins & Jay Papasan
The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge
Selling 101 by Zig Ziglar
Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon
Steam by Andrea Sutcliffe
Toxic Success by Paul Pearsall
Why Aren’t You Your Own Boss by Paul & Sarah Edwards & Peter Economy
Winning with People by John C. Maxwell
Write It Down, Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klaus
You Can if You Think You Can by Norman Vincent Peale

Additional Reviews:
First 25 Books Reviews
Reviews 26-50

The Science of Leonardo by Fritjof Capra

Capra, Fritjof. The Science of Leonardo. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

In the preface to this book, Capra discusses how in each era the Leonardo da Vinci has been reinvented and he will be reinventing the sage, too. Capra presents Leonardo as the first modern scientist. In this book is a picture of a Leonardo who not only anticipated the methods of the modern science established in the 18th century, but the mindset of 21st century science.

Before dealing directly with Leonardo’s scientific studies, Capra provides a short biography of his subject and an introduction to some of the artist’s works. While Leonardo’s science was ahead of it’s time in many ways, it was also shaped by the science of the Renaissance and the rediscovery of ancient texts that occurred. It also was in interplay with his art, his art inspiring his interest in the natural world and his observations informing his art.


Capra presents two major ways in which Leonardo’s science contrasted with his contemporaries and is comparable to modern science. First, Leonardo used a process of observing, hypothesizing and experimenting that is essentially the same as used by modern science. At the time, studying natural philosophy, or science, meant studying the ancient philosophers and scientists. Leonardo tested theory against experience and reformulated theories accordingly.

Leonardo also had a systematic and ecological worldview that is in keeping with emerging science. In some ways, this put him in the camp of his contemporaries, where and organic view of the world was more prevalent than the mechanical view that would dominate later science. However, combined with this more rigorous methods, he developed an understanding of how things in our world are interconnected that surpassed many of his contemporaries.

In this was, Capra thinks Leonardo could serve as a model for modern scientists. The power of science could be applied to understanding the organic, interconnected systems of a living world of which we are a part instead of approaching the world as a machine to be operated.

Though Leonardo was ahead of his time in some ways, he had almost no impact on science, especially in comparison to his influence on art. He never published his papers and his immediate successor made little headway in organizing them for publication. Within a couple of generations, they fell into indifferent hands that allowed them to be spread across Europe and much of them lost.

Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances & Joseph Gies

Among many the Middle Ages, between the Classical period and the Renaissance, is still thought of as the Dark Ages.  In their book Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel, Frances and Joseph Gies summarize scholarship that shows that the Medieval period was one of commercial and technological advancement that welcomed invention and the dispersion of knowledge.

The authors present a history of technology beginning with the contributions of Greek and Roman civilization and culminating with European developments on the cusp of the Age of Discovery.  The period in between is sometimes called the Dark Ages because of the lack of documentary history, the loss of the centralizing influence of Roman Empire, and the loss of Greek texts and knowledge in much of Europe.  The Gieses attempt to debunk the notion that this time was “dark” in the sense of being backward, especially superstitious, and lacking in advancement in knowledge, commerce, science, and especially technology.

From a technological point of view, the Middle Ages didn’t inherit from the Greeks or Romans much more than they might have learned for more ancient civilizations.  The Greeks little esteemed the useful arts.  The Romans were very practical adopters of technology, and they certainly did things on a large scale, but their main contribution was size and organization.  Medieval Europe more fruitfully borrowed and built upon technology from China.  Ancient China had very advance technology in comparison to contemporary civilizations, and the spice trade aided the transmission of technology, in the form of both devices and ideas, from East to West.

I think some of the greatest advances in this period occurred in architecture and materials.  In architecture, builders began to move away from Roman circular arches to something more like true arches.  This, along with the flying buttress, another Medieval development, made a new architecture of more open and brighter spaces possible.

Materials greatly improved, too, especially iron.  Either directly or as an idea, iron-making technology moved from China to Europe.  The blast furnace gave Europeans the ability to make cast iron.  Though casting iron parts was in their grasp, the more significant issue was that a lot more iron could be made.  Iron tools and parts made a host of other technology practicable.

Technological changes led to cultural changes, too.  Improved applications of animal and water power to agriculture and food production led to a transition away from slavery to a serf-tenant system in which the people who worked the field had a right to portion of their production.  Agricultural surpluses led to the development of cities along with a decline of bound serfs rise of free tradesmen.  The development of manufacturing led to all kinds of trade and improvements in commercial practices including double-entry bookkeeping.

I think this book may be a good introduction to the history of technology for people seeking an entry point to the field.  It is neither too technical nor too academic in its style.  It covers a period of history that is not as well covered by other popular books.  It also acknowledges and summarizes the technology of the immediately preceding and succeeding ages, so it covers a very wide timeframe.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague de Camp 

The Science of Leonardo by Fritjof Capra

The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark

Gies, Frances, & Joseph Gies. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages.  New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Links related to Medieval science and technology

Grotesque mummy head reveals advanced medieval science

Google

How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg

When people complain about math being too hard or impractical, one might expect a college math professor to take up a defense, which Jordan Ellenberg does in How Not to Be Wrong. He manages to make is his argument without resorting to equations, and with very few numbers.

Math is not all about equations and numbers (though these are important objects in math). Ordinary people do math frequently in the form of thinking with a little more depth, rigor and structure than usual. This is the power of math to help us make better decisions. Though Ellenberg covers a lot of ground in math, science and history, the notion of better decision making through math runs through each chapter.

Along the way, he debunks some common uses of math, even those that are prevalently used among math-minded scientists. For instance, he takes on the notion of statistical significance, which sometimes bothers me, too. Statistical significance by itself is not an arbiter of the truth of something. It has a lot more to do with a particular way of framing arguments and the sensitivity of an experiment. If you have a large enough sample, you’re likely to have statistically significant results, even if those results are insignificantly small. You can “prove” ridiculous, plainly wrong things using an argument from statistical significance because improbable things happen sometimes (actually a lot).

Ellenberg discusses the related subject of probability, which any book like this should. Human beings are pretty bad at grasping probability; it requires deeper, rigorous, structured thinking that sometimes runs counter to our intuition.

Though math is sometimes misused or misunderstood, Ellenberg is bullish on the power of math to help us make better decisions and understand the world more deeply. Math itself is a pretty deep world, and mathematicians have discovered connections between things that seem to be unrelated. That is part of the power of math. Solutions in one are often lead to applications in many others.

Of course, math won’t eliminate uncertainty, though it can help you understand uncertainties better. I’ve spent most of my career in and around government and Ellenberg expresses some empathy for decision makers in the realm of policy, writing, “Maker of public policy do not have the luxury of uncertainty that scientist do. They have to for their best guesses and make decisions on the basis thereof.” This guesswork can be done with humility and honesty, as is fitting in a republic.

While Ellenberg eschews the pile of symbols many people think of as math, he does not avoid deep, challenging questions. It’s not the math you’ll find in journals, but it’s not fluff. He doesn’t call people to join the ranks of academic mathematicians (though don’t give up on the idea just because it seems hard at first), but he argues that people in all manner of professions could benefit from education in math. If you’re interested in becoming such person, How Not to Be Wrong is a good introduction to how mathematicians think about the world.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Better for All the World by Harry Bruinius

The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow

The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance by Paul Robert Walker

The Numerati by Stephen Baker

Rock Breaks Scissors by William Poundstone

The Unfinished Game by Keith Devlin

War Against the Weak by Edwin Black

Ellenberg, Jordan. How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking. New York: Penguin, 2014.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah presents itself as a firsthand account by the titular character of his calling and work to rebuild Jerusalem. Some think some or all of Nehemiah may have been written by Ezra, who is attributed authorship of I Chronicles, II Chronicles and Ezra. Though divided into four books in Christian editions of the Old Testament, Jewish traditions present these as one or two books.

Nehemiah was cupbearer to Persian king Artaxerxes. This must have been a high and trusted position. He was deemed trustworthy enough to serve the king food and set in on the intimate dealings of the king’s court. He was also considered competent to be governor of a province of the vast Persian Empire.

Around the middle of Artaxerxes’ reign, Nehemiah was moved by news of the conditions of Jerusalem and his Jewish brethren there. Though Jewish people were being permitted to return to their ancestral homeland, the fortifications of Jerusalem had not been rebuilt and they were subject to the harassment of surrounding nations. Artaxerxes responded favorably to Nehemiah’s request to do something about the problem, and appointed him governor.

Nehemiah was a shrewd governor. He had to lead Jewish people who were disorganized and disheartened after decades of captivity in foreign lands. He had to manage the clash in cultures between the descendants of those who had been left in the land and those who were returning after being raised in alien cultures. He oversaw a renaissance of Jewish culture and religion with the aid of the priest Ezra and the rediscovery of scriptures in the remains of Solomon’s temple. He fended off jealous neighbors, some of them Persian governors who must have had some clout in Artaxerxes’ court. He also retained the favor of his king, who repeatedly reasserted his desire to rebuild Jerusalem, and his command that the governors of the region provide material support for that purpose.

The book suggests that Nehemiah’s success as a political leader was due to his moral leadership. He desired to set an example for the people. He also expected other leaders to do the same. This led to a moral renewal of the populace. This fits the model in I & II Chronicles, in which the uprightness or degeneracy of the king lead to the same in the people.

This also suggests another point: God is behind it all. God stirred Nehemiah’s heart, and Artaxerxes’, to help a people chastened by the exile to turn their hearts back to the God who called them to be His people.

Books of the Bible that are closely related to Nehemiah are

I Chronicles

II Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.