Reviews
[Johnson is] an infectiously exciting writer [and] The Invention of Airis delightful to read. But it aims high. It isn't a work of conventional history or biography, though it contains snippets of both, but more like a case study in the history of ideas that hints at a grander analytical theory. Johnson is a wide-ranging enthusiast with a catholic appetite for intriguing facts and a Marxian appetite for searching for structures that underlie social phenomena.” —Salon Like Priestley, Johnson—who wrote the bestselling Everything Bad Is Good For You—is a polymath, and … [it’s] exhilarating to follow his unpredictable trains of thought. To explain why some ideas upend the world, he draws upon many disciplines: chemistry, social history, geography, even ecosystem science.” —Los Angeles Times Steven Johnson’s mind works in wondrous ways and readers have been the beneficiaries of his eclectic interests. Johnson’s new book, The Invention of Air, marks a return to cultural history …His free-ranging mind and irreverent wit entertain and prompt thought.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer Steven Johnson argues that [this] key player has been all but forgotten … An expat, a champion of reason, an original progressive—Priestley’s ideals were central to the American experiment. He rarely gets the credit, but he was arguably the United States’ original advocate for hope and change.” — Newsweek This is not a book about the discovery of oxygen but about the invention of air: how groups of scientists, natural philosophers, religious leaders and politicians served as cultural petri dishes in which ideas were discussed, experimented with, discarded or accepted …[Johnson] gives long-overdue time and space to some of the more controversial aspects of [Priestley’s] work …Priestley may not have gotten full credit for his work on oxygen, but this new book gives plenty to the life of the man himself.” —Dallas Morning News Steven Johnson's latest book, The Invention of Air, is a wide-ranging, learned, engrossing biography of the polymath pioneering scientist, Joseph Priestley … Johnson uses the life of Priestley to illuminate a theory of history that holds that great people are neither an inevitable product of their times, nor luminous, supernatural geniuses -- rather, they are the product of an ecosystemof influences, technologies, climate, and energy (literally -- the story of stored energy in coal, saltpetre, and plant-bound carbon are vital to the story). He pulls this off deftly, with a series of insightful, beautifully realized anaecdotes from the life of Priestley and his contemporaries -- his allies and his many enemies -- that make the idea of history being shaped by webs and networks seem absolutely true.” — Boingboing [Johnson] refracts just about every beam of Enlightenment thought through the prism of Priestley.” —Seattle Weekly We rarely hear of [Joseph Priestley] today, but it wasn't always thus: the correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams includes 52 mentions of Priestley, versus just three of George Washington. With The Invention of Air, Steven Johnson brilliantly explains why … For all of Priestley’s many achievements, laid out so delightfully in Johnson’s account, it’s his work with plants and the oxygen cycle that rightfully gained him immortality … Engrossing.” —Oregonian In The Invention of AirSteven Johnson gives a biography not just of a man, but a time in which the spigot of ideas was gradually being cranked wide open. It's a fun (and quite short) read for anyone interested in the intersection of science, politics, and religion. It's also an interesting look at how societies react --
