Engrossing science let down by poor history

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The year 1660 was a turning point in British political, cultural and intellectual life. The restoration of King Charles II, after eleven brutal years of military dictatorship, awoke a new spirit of vibrancy and optimism in Britain. And one of the earliest yet most enduring results of the new era was the formation of the Royal Society.

It was a heady time and there are heady tales to be told of it, both in history and in fiction. Among the most successful of the latter are Neal Stephenson’s three-volume Baroque Cycle, and one suspects that it is their readership whom Edward Dolnick may have had had in mind when writing The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern Universe.