Reviews

First published in Britain as The Man Who Knew Too Much (2002), this biography by a British historian revives Robert Hooke, a figure nearly forgotten to history. Hooke worked in almost every area of scientific endeavor, from discovering the rotating spot on Jupiter and working on planetary motion to working on air pumps, barometers, fossils, diffraction of light, and being a partner architect with Wren in rebuilding London after the Great Fire of 1666. He is perhaps best known for his arguments with Isaac Newton and Christian Huygens. Unlike Lisa Jardine's recent and shorter The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, which focuses more on the man, Inwood examines Hooke's scientific accomplishments in greater depth. Both works are heavily annotated and complement each other, but Jardine's work is better for general collections and Inwood's for history of science and academic collections.-Eric D. Albright, Tufts Univ. Health Science Lib., Boston Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Forgotten though he may have been, this is the second biography of Hooke to appear this season (after Lisa Jardine's The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, Forecasts, Nov. 17, 2003). The next time you open a window, thank Robert Hooke, who invented the modern sash window. Or thank him when you're driving your car, for Hooke invented the universal joint, indispensable in transmissions. In this extensively researched biography, Inwood (A History of London), like Jardine, wants to rehabilitate Hooke's reputation after centuries of denigration due mainly to Hooke's celebrated disputes with Isaac Newton and other luminaries like Hevelius, Huygens and Leibniz, whom he accused of taking credit for his discoveries. In addition to his work as a scientist, Hooke played an important role alongside Christopher Wren in rebuilding London after the devastating fire of 1666; Inwood argues that history has credited to Wren many buildings that were actually designed by Hooke. Hooke's mind-boggling breadth of interests can be compared only with da Vinci's, and he was equally prescient: his argument with Newton over the nature of light (wave or particle?) was 200 years ahead of its time, and he anticipated Lyell and Darwin in his firm belief in the cataclysmic history of the earth's surface. This book complements Jardine's: Inwood provides substantially more insight into Hooke's career as a scientist and the better account of the quarrels with Newton, but Jardine paints a more vivid portrait of Hooke the man. Both biographies are recommended for readers interested in early modern science. 37 illus. Agent, David Godwin. (Apr. 19) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.