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Riverhead Books

Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America

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Title: Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America
Author: Johnson, Steven
ISBN: 9781594488528
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 2009
Binding: Regular Hardback
Language: English
Condition: Used: Very Good
Clean, unmarked copy with some edge wear. Good binding. Dust jacket included if issued with one. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.

Science & Math 1310334

Publisher Description:
Bestselling author Steven Johnson recounts in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America s Founding Fathers.
"The Invention of Air" is a book of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.
It is the story of Joseph Priestley scientist and theologian, protege of Benjamin Franklin, friend of Thomas Jefferson an eighteenth-century radical thinker who played pivotal roles in the invention of ecosystem science, the discovery of oxygen, the founding of the Unitarian Church, and the intellectual development of the United States. And it is a story that only Steven Johnson, acclaimed juggler of disciplines and provocative ideas, can do justice to.
In the 1780s, Priestley had established himself in his native England as a brilliant scientist, a prominent minister, and an outspoken advocate of the American Revolution, who had sustained long correspondences with Franklin, Jefferson, and John Adams. Ultimately, his radicalism made his life politically uncomfortable, and he fled to the nascent United States. Here, he was able to build conceptual bridges linking the scientific, political, and religious impulses that governed his life. And through his close relationships with the Founding Fathers Jefferson credited Priestley as the man who prevented him from abandoning Christianity he exerted profound if little-known influence on the shape and course of our history.
As in his last bestselling work, "The Ghost Map," Steven Johnson here uses a dramatic historical story to explore themes that have long engaged him: innovation and the way new ideas emerge and spread, and the environments that foster these breakthroughs. And as he did in "Everything Bad Is Good for You," Johnson upsets some