Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 384 pages
- Published by: Walker & Company April 15, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0802716318
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0802716316
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
- Weighs: 1.4 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
The task Ferguson (
Tycho & Kepler) takes on is formidable: to describe not only the ancient Greek mathematician and mystic Pythagoras, but also the entire sweep of the Pythagorean legacy, from his time to ours. Even if the book's subtitle is never quite justified, she has largely succeeded. This chatty and readable account bites off great chunks of history and science, from Platonists to string theory. No matter how engaging, however, the book still reads more like a series of facts than a coherent narrative. Best when she comes on like a good friend bursting with some amazing thing she can't wait to share (the passages on Bertrand Russell are particularly sharp and funny), Ferguson has a tendency to punt when a concept becomes difficult to explain; rather than delve into a piece of ancient geometry called the Delian problem, she says, [a] lengthy text is needed to understand it. Ferguson concludes with banal generalizations about faith versus science. Still, the book is winning, accessible and intermittently fascinating. black and white illus.
(Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Review
“A stimulating, wide-ranging look at how the Greek mathematician and philosopher's key insights have been at the heart of an enormous range of subsequent thought.”—
Kirkus Reviews Praise for Tycho & Kepler:“Her skill in explaining complex astronomical problems and procedures clearly and succinctly is nothing short of amazing.”—
Philadelphia Inquirer “In
Tycho & Kepler, we are given a sense of science as a quintessentially human activity, conducted by living, breathing and distinctly idiosyncratic subjects.”—
Los Angeles Times (one of the Best Books of 2003)“Ferguson shows gorgeously how the obsessions of the pragmatic, imperious Brahe meshed perfectly with those of the idealistic, pensive Kepler.”—
Natural History
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