A solid book on understanding the basic impact Newton had on modern culture. Although the book is small, it contains lots of information from a variety of sources. This book will not give a full appreciation of what Newton achieved but would be a good starting point for those with interest in science history. ( )

Competent, lively & concise biography of perhaps the first Enlightenment man - & certainly "last of the magicians", as JM Keynes later put it. Speaking personally, the c200pp of text gave me quite what I'd wanted: a general survey of Newton, his main ideas, & significance for the century following him. Perhaps a little short on the mathematics side.

While at it, I'll add another strictly personal remark: I found Newton sympathetic & congenial, despite his superficial unpleasantness. A scientific dictator? Sure. But also one of the great legislators of humanity, alongside Moses, Numa, Solon or (according to some) America's founding fathers. Of course Newton's primary realm was not society, but nature. Yet like every great lawgiver before him, he was all of a piece: brutally uncompromising & relentlessly selfish wherever the integrity of the rule he had devised was at stake. ( )

A very good read. The book traces the life of Sir Isaac Newton through examining his correspondences and publications and gives an account of his insurmountable contributions to natural philosophy and mathematics. As well, it provides insight into his influences, and portrays what this perhaps most important man in the realm of physics and mathematics was really like. The book is as much a page-turner as a book about history can be. I suppose people with an interest in such things as science and natural history, who I suspect would have certain knowledge of the life of Newton anyway, would find this book worth reading. I am one of those. ( )

Very good. It uses his biography to set the stage for intelligent discussions of his ideas, not as they're recast and filtered now, but as he and his contemporaries understood them then. Fascinating stuff. I'll have to check out more of Gleick's stuff.