The Clockwork Universe

Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World

By: Edward Dolnick

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with natures most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world.

At the end of the 17th century, an age of religious wars, plague, and the Great Fire of London when most people saw the world as falling apart, these earliest scientists saw a world of perfect order. They declared that, chaotic as it looked, the universe was in fact as intricate and perfectly regulated as a clock. This was the tail end of Shakespeare's century, when the natural and the supernatural still twined around each other. Disease was a punishment ordained by God, astronomy had not yet broken free from astrology, and the sky was filled with omens. It was a time when little was known and everything was new. These brilliant, ambitious, curious men believed in angels, alchemy, and the devil, and they also believed that the universe followed precise, mathematical laws, a contradiction that tormented them and changed the course of history. The Clockwork Universe is the fascinating and compelling story of the bewildered geniuses of the Royal Society, the men who made the modern world.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2011 Edward Dolnick (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Great book

Very entertaining. Amazing history. I couldn't stop listening to it. I think it's important to know about the time when ideas came up and not take knowledge them for granted.

Interesting, not fun

Interesting, but not not much more you can say unless you really love history and the history of science. I was surprised at how narrow people were back then

Start with the second part.

The first third of this book was hard to finish. Class based brutality of that era of god-centered logic. I raced through the rest of the book. Through math-based to calculus- based thinking. The story brings to life the people and it was easy to listen to.

I've listened to it twice now!

This book give fonominal insight into the thoughts behind scientific discoveries made by some of the modern world's greatest minds. It really explains the perspectives of early scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers. It helped me appreciate everything I've learned in math and science.

Now I Get IT

Wish I had heard this 50 years ago. Math might have made more sense. Slopes reach limits.

Not Well Presented: Genius of the Renaissance

The Clockwork Universe, by Edward Dolnick, narrated by Alan Sklar. The cursory story of the scientific and mathematical components of the renaissance.

This book was effectively delivered in three parts. First we were taught the medieval times left western civilization in ignorance. The populace was laden with myth, old wives’ tales, and superstition as its only learning. In other words, the western Europeans were in abject ignorance. The second part introduces us to some of the renaissance’s greatest thinkers, including Galileo, Newton and Leibnitz. None of that was particularly interesting, well written or of probative value. The final portion of the book explained some of the ingenious discoveries of those three prodigies and others. The explanation of Galileo’s perception of motion, Newton’s discovery of gravity, the components of light and calculus, and his competition with Leibnitz for genius of the time became a bit more interesting.

On whole a disappointment. Too little to make the read worth the undertaking. Yet, not too burdensome to read if one has nothing better to do and the subject matter is of interest.

Absolutely Fantastic

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I think that this book is so education and mind opening. It's fantastic. I learned a lot but was also interested as I went. I feel like I got nuggets of history that I wouldn't have gotten any other way.

What about Alan Sklar’s performance did you like?

Yes he was great.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All the facts and data and the way it was delivered.

Good, but flawed

The book does a very good job of explaining the context of the beginnings of what we call the "Scientific Revolution". Unfortunately, it makes the jump from the Greeks to the Europeans of the 17th Century without even mentioning that many of those later Europeans relied upon Islamic thinkers like Ibn Alhazen.

Enjoyable Read

I am happy that I got this book. It gave an enjoyable account of some of the most influential scientific discoveries in the 17th century. It didn't get too technical, and so was easy to listen to without getting lost.

While I was vaguely familiar with many of the accounts of these discoveries, it was enlightening to hear pieces of journal entries or letters that describe the events first-hand.

Not the best, not the worst

It wasn't the best book I've read on Royal Society and how modern science was shaped. A bit chaotic and patchworkish story. A few interesting fact. It's good if you want to start with RS overview and then dig into details with other titles.