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Loading... The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern…by Simon Winchester
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. TadAD | Aug 17, 2008 |  1   Man, did he ever want to drive home the point that William Smith is overlooked and that everyone owes him a debt of gratitude. Not nearly as good as "The Professor and the Mad Man." Good thing it was about maps, or this would have gotten fewer stars. (  )VenusofUrbino | Aug 14, 2008 | This biography and geological history is one of Winchester's best books. It's concise, interesting, and holds together nicely. (  )wanack | Jun 28, 2008 | I read Winchester because he writes scientific brain candy - meaning serious stuff that is easy to read - but this book is more of a formal biography of William Smith, credited as one of the founders of the discipline of geology. It was a bit dull at parts, I found it hard to stay focused at times, but Winchester does liven it up a bit with amazing facts and a personal interlude. Still, it's a bit over the top to keep writing books about the most INFLUENTIAL and OVERLOOKED persons of all time. ( )Othemts | Jun 25, 2008 | This book reminds me that I missed a few classes in Ms. Liles middle school science class, so my knowledge of geological epochs is limited. Besides that it's a bit boring. Not as good as 'The Professor and the Madman' (also by Simon Winchester). (  )dvf1976 | Apr 24, 2008 | 0.093 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0060193611, Hardcover)Once upon a time there lived a man who discovered the secrets of the earth. He traveled far and wide, learning about the world below the surface. After years of toil, he created a great map of the underworld and expected to live happily ever after. But did he? Simon Winchester (The Professor and the Madman) tells the fossil-friendly fairy tale life of William Smith in The Map That Changed the World.Born to humble parents, Smith was also a child of the Industrial Revolution (the year of his birth, 1769, also saw Josiah Wedgwood open his great factory, Etruria, Richard Arkwright create his first water-powered cotton-spinning frame, and James Watt receive the patent for the first condensing steam engine). While working as surveyor in a coal mine, Smith noticed the abrupt changes in the layers of rock as he was lowered into the depths. He came to understand that the different layers--in part as revealed by the fossils they contained--always appeared in the same order, no matter where they were found. He also realized that geology required a three-dimensional approach. Smith spent the next 20 some years traveling throughout Britain, observing the land, gathering data, and chattering away about his theories to those he met along the way, thus acquiring the nickname "Strata Smith." In 1815 he published his masterpiece: an 8.5- by 6-foot, hand-tinted map revealing "A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales." Despite this triumph, Smith's road remained more rocky than smooth. Snubbed by the gentlemanly Geological Society, Smith complained that "the theory of geology is in the possession of one class of men, the practice in another." Indeed, some members of the society went further than mere ostracism--they stole Smith's work. These cartographic plagiarists produced their own map, remarkably similar to Smith's, in 1819. Meanwhile the chronically cash-strapped Smith had been forced to sell his prized fossil collection and was eventually consigned to debtor's prison. In the end, the villains are foiled, our hero restored, and science triumphs. Winchester clearly relishes his happy ending, and his honey-tinged prose ("that most attractively lovable losterlike Paleozoic arthropod known as the trilobite") injects a lot of life into what seems, on the surface, a rather dry tale. Like Smith, however, Winchester delves into the strata beneath the surface and reveals a remarkable world. --Sunny Delaney (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:17 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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I can understand that, other than his ground-breaking cartography and his conflict with those who tried to steal credit for his work, there isn't a lot of exciting material present. However, rather than take Sobel's (Longitude) approach of simply writing a shorter book, Winchester found it necessary to stuff the book chock full of endless repetition, smarmy adulation, overly-long quotation and irrelevant travelogue. Coupled with his need to employ footnotes incessantly, this caused me to lose the thread of the main story quite often.
Shortly after halfway through the book, I found myself skimming more and more frequently, trying to pick out the portions that were germane to the story in which I was interested.
A disappointment. (