The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World

New York Times bestselling author Edward Dolnick brings to light the true story of one of the most pivotal moments in modern intellectual history—when a group of strange, tormented geniuses invented science as we know it, and remade our understanding of the world. Dolnick’s earth-changing story of Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the birth of modern science is at once an entertaining romp through the annals of academic history, in the vein of Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, and a captivating exploration of a defining time for scientific progress, in the tradition of Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder.
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The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of menwho lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured auniverse that ran like a perfect machine. A meld ofhistory and science, this book is a group portrait ofsome of the greatest minds who ever lived as theywrestled with nature’s most sweeping mysteries. Theanswers they uncovered still hold the key to how weunderstand the world.

At the end of the seventeenth century—an age ofreligious wars, plague, and the Great Fire of London—when most people saw the world as falling apart, theseearliest scientists saw a world of perfect order. They declaredthat, chaotic as it looked, the universe was in factas intricate and perfectly regulated as a clock. This wasthe tail end of Shakespeare’s century, when the naturaland the supernatural still twined around each other. Diseasewas a punishment ordained by God, astronomy hadnot yet broken free from astrology, and the sky was filledwith omens. It was a time when little was known andeverything was new. These brilliant, ambitious, curiousmen believed in angels, alchemy, and the devil, and theyalso believed that the universe followed precise, mathematicallaws—a contradiction that tormented them andchanged the course of history.

The Clockwork Universe is the fascinating and compellingstory of the bewildered geniuses of the RoyalSociety, the men who made the modern world.

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“Dolnick’s book is lively and the characters are vivid.” - New York Times Book Review

“Edward Dolnick’s smoothly written history of the scientific revolution tells the stories of the key players and events that transformed society.” - Charlotte Observer

“Dolnick . . . writes clearly and unpretentiously about science, and writes equally well about the tumultuous historical context . . . [He] also offers penetrating portraits of the geniuses of the day, many of them idiosyncratic in the extreme, who offer fertile ground for entertaining writing. [Dolnick] has an eye for vivid details in aid of historical recreation, and an affection for his subjects . . . [An] informative read.” - Publishers Weekly

“[Dolnick] offers penetrating portraits of the geniuses of the day . . . who offer fertile ground for entertaining writing. [He] has an eye for vivid details in aid of historical recreation, and an affection for his subjects . . . [An] informative read.” - Publishers Weekly

“An engrossing read.” - Library Journal

“A lively account of early science. . . . Colorful, entertainingly written and nicely paced.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Dolnick furnishes a fine survey introduction to a fertile field of scientific biography and history.” - Booklist

“A character-rich, historical narrative.” - Wall Street Journal