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.

Well Done!

I had just finished Einstein’s biography and I thought I might follow up with a book about Isaac Newton. This is the book I chose. It was very well done, even for the scientific laymen. The book does have a Newton focus, but it also goes into many of his contemporaries which I found equally interesting. The book would be a helpful read for those entering a basic Physics class. It is really effective at taking what could be difficult subject matter and tying it out to real life examples that most should be able to follow and understand.

Great job

Wonderful delighting read! I hope to read it again someday in the near future. He really captured the works of the two greats.

Wonderful book. Well read.

One of my favorites. Right up there with Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Well woven tale of all the great minds and how they contributed to our modern understanding of the universe

Enjoyed the narration and the contexts and conflicts that each person encounters is relatable and insightful. Such wonderful gifts of insight we have thanks to all of the focus and determination of these characters despite the “consensus of thought” we see prevalent even today. Great book

A laymans history of the scientific revolution

Mr Dolnick's book is basically about the scientific revolution which took place around the 17th century. It covers the discoveries of Kepler, Galileo, Boyle, Hook, Liebnitz, Newton and others. In an attempt to explain the science and the reasons the discoveries were of importance Mr Dolnick does what the reader would expect - he presents the mathematics and science in the simplest possible terms so that they are understandable to those with no scientific training.

In this he does a credable job and, for the most part, the explanations make sense and are presented at a level that can be understood by those not "expert" in the areas involved. Mr Dolnick also tries to present the history of the discoveries in context with the times so that readers can understand how and why the discoveries were of importance.

Some parts of this book work relatively well. Kepler's discoveries (the 3 Laws) are explained in simple terms, Galileo's work is explained in a way that readers can relate to and in a way that makes their importance to those in everyday life understandable. There is an extended section on infinite numbers and why they presented difficulties to early mathematicians and an even more extended section on the tragic, but inevitable, clash between Newton and Liebnitz. Mr Dolnick even mentions the problems this caused the British during the following years, although I believe he should have spent more time explaining why this was a serious problem for British scientists. Still he does make a stab at the issue.

On the other hand I believe that there are issues with the presentation as well. First, Mr Dolnick seems to have a problem with religion in general and with those who are religious in particular. The first part of the book fairly reeks of religious intolerance and those who are "believers" are sometimes treated as fools. Secondly Mr Dolnick sometimes raises issues that he does not bother to finish. For example, what happened to Kepler's mother?

While the book is not intended to be a scientific treatise on the issues I believe that those familiar with the science and mathematics are probably not going to enjoy entire sections of the book. In his attempt to make the issues understandable to the layman Mr Dolnick often uses terminology that is either incorrect or so "dumbed down" that it is difficult for those who know the subject areas to bear with. For example, no one in the Sciences has used the term "imaginary numbers" since I was in High School many, many years ago. The numbers are now referred to as "complex numbers" since they are not "imaginary" at all. And, in spite of Mr Dolnick's book, mathematicians today would almost universally say that they are involved in the discovery of "eternal truths" and that has not changed since the time of Kepler. Armithmetic is not, and never has been, part of modern mathematics past the 5th or 6th grade in school.

I can only review and evalutate this book in the light I see it. If I were a non-scientist I suppose my review might be different but I am not and hence I find this book "off-putting" in entire sections. While I believe it would be of interest to those without much of a scientific background I believe it is of only very limited interest to those who are trained in the "exact sciences". On the plus side I believe that Alan Sklar's narration is very well done.

Worth having a hard copy version

This book is full of fascinating history and science. It reads more as a story rather than an historical reference, though. But having a hard copy version would be useful to refer back to for the sheer density of information. The author presents the material in a logical, well-organized manner with an entertaining style. The narrator, however, tended toward monotony now and again. Still, his diction was clear and the recording lacked any true quirky irritations.

Extremely Enjoyable

Isaac Newton lived in a time when the average lifespan was around 30 and people believed the Plague was a punishment from God. Well, the men of "The Royal Society" believed in God also; they believed him to be a Mathematician and that he commands the Universe following a set of Mathematical rules. Newton spent his whole life trying to figure these rules out and was pretty successful at it.
Dolnick gives a pretty well rounded history of Isaac Newton's work. Not too much to where it would have become boring, but enough to leave you satisfied or maybe even wanting some more. I fall into the wanting some more category and was sad when the book was done. I found this book to be intellectually stimulating and also found myself laughing at times.
The Narrator was a little above average, and definitely sufficient. The best quality he had was his ability to express the humorous parts. I guess I could even go as far as saying he made those parts more humorous and earned an extra star for that.
I definitely recommend this book. I am very happy that I bought it and would do it again if I could go back.

Great insight of science in the 17th Century

In a nutshell, The Clockwork Universe shows how the world progressed from 1600, when philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Church for proclaiming that the earth was just one of an infinite number of planets, to 1705 when Isaac Newton was knighted by the Queen of England for his discoveries in physics, one them being how how gravity maintained planets' orbits around suns - basically proving what cost Bruno his life. In the 17th century the modern world was born. Scientists (who were mostly believers) began understanding and explaining how the the laws of the universe operated instead of using the prevailing hand-waving explanation that "God did it". Religious leaders and many in the general population didn't want to hear of this new knowledge as they argued that the infallible Bible contained the explanations for all things and it was an insult to God to probe for further understanding! The Church still had a stranglehold on society, even amongst its most enlightened citizens.

Having visited London and Newton's grave and memorial last month, I could really relate to the setting and the reverence of Newton by the British and the rest of the world. As the title indicates, the book was primarily about Newton, one of the greatest human minds. The parts of the book about Newton's life were fascinating, and I'm looking forward to reading his biography written by Richard Westfall. Newton's life reminded me of Leonardo Da Vinci as he seemed to be operating on a level far above any of his contemporaries. The author also fully fleshes out what life was like in London in the 17th century, and for the most part it wasn't pleasant. It was a very dirty, polluted city. The plague arrived in 1665 and the city burned the year after. And people of that time were not keen on bathing as they thought sickness entered the body through the pores. Medicine was ineffective and based on nonsense.

Whereas Newton was the primary focus of the book a number of other interesting people and topics were covered: the founding of The Royal Society, the life and times of Newtons' rival Gottfried Leibniz, Leeuwenhoek and his microscope, Galileo and his telescope (also persecuted by the Church), Kepler and his laws of planetary motion, and stories about Boyle, Descartes, Halley, Hooke, and a number of other notable scientists and philosophers of this century. The Royal Society promoted rivalry and cooperation amongst the greatest minds of the time. Liebniz and Newton pushed each other and argued over who invented calculus (Newton came up with it first), and Newton's disdain for Leibniz's spurred him on to write some of his greatest works.

The The Clockwork Universe was an excellent listen. The narrator, Alan Sklar, had a pleasant voice and his reading added to my enjoyment of the story. I'd say it's one of the better history of science books I've read. It was riveting about 95% of the time and lost me only during he times when mathematical principals such as infinity and negative numbers were delved in to, in too much detail in my opinion, and the book got a little dry during this part. A lot of subject matter was touched on and this is not a long book, so some subjects were glossed over and not explored enough for my liking. But, like any good nonfiction book should do, this one has inspired me to read more about the characters and events contained between its covers (or within its digital file).

Easy Listening.

Part biography and part explanation of theory of gravity. The author and narrator made this easy listening. Difficult theories are dummied down.

I love this book

Narrative cuts across "evolution" of liberal arts as we understand the term today. This is a very close runner-up to Bryson's Short History of Everything.