Table of Contents

A World On FirePrologue: God in the Air

Part I: Problem

1. The Cloth-Dresser's Son
2. The Sums and Receipts of Parallel Worlds
3. The Gas in the Beer
4. The Prodigy
5. The Goodness of Air
6. The Problem of Burning

Part II: Solution

7. The Sentimental Journey
8. The Mouse in the Jar
9. The Twelve Days
10. The Language of War
11. "King Mob"
12. The World Out of Joint
13. The New World

Epilogue: The Burning World

Dramatis Personae
Chronology
Glossary of Chemical, Historical, and Scientific Terms
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

About the Author

Joe Jackson is the author of four works of nonfiction and a novel. He was an investigative reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot for 12 years, covering criminal justice and the state's death row. He lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He can be reached through his website, joejacksonbooks.com.

Reviews

An exhilarating narrative, sweeping us through great discoveries and international rivalries, yet strengthened by meticulous research and analysis. (Jenny Uglow, author of The Lunar Men)

This tale of eminent scientists victimized by political ideology is told with passion and a splendid attention to vivid detail. (Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times)

An exhilarating narrative, sweeping us through great discoveries and international rivalries, yet strengthened by meticulous research and analysis. (Jenny Uglow, author of The Lunar Men)

This tale of eminent scientists victimized by political ideology is told with passion and a splendid attention to vivid detail. (Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times)

Five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Jackson (Leavenworth Train) once again puts his investigative skills to the test, this time to trace the story of oxygen's discovery by Englishman Joseph Priestley and Frenchman Antoine Lavoisier. Rivals, yet eternally linked to each other, these scientists experimented and dared to challenge centuries-old Greek philosophy. Though their cumulative body of research was extensive, the watershed moment for both was their nearly simultaneous discovery of oxygen and the significance it held for what was to become the new science of chemistry. Jackson dramatically unfolds the parallel lives of these two men, explaining their research and insights in terms that will captivate most readers. He deftly interweaves their lives and the violent events of the final third of the 18th century in alternating chapters. However, Jackson devotes a greater part of his book to Priestley; for a more comprehensive treatment of Lavoisier, see novelist Madison Smartt Bell's Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution. This book is appropriate for high school, public, and academic libraries.-Margaret F. Dominy, Drexel Univ. Lib., Philadelphia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.