Isaac Newton has become an intellectual avatar for our modern
age, the man who, as even children know, was inspired to codify
nature's laws by watching an apple fall from a tree. Yet Newton
devoted much of his energy to deciphering the mysteries of alchemy,
theology, and ancient chronology. How did a man who was at first
obscure to all but a few esoteric natural philosophers and
Cambridge scholars, was preoccupied with investigations of
millennial prophecies, and spent decades as Master of the London
Mint become famous as the world's first great scientist? Patricia
Fara demonstrates that Newton's reputation, surprisingly limited in
his day, was carefully cultivated by devoted followers so that
Newton's prestige became inseparable from the explosive growth of
science itself.
"Newton: The Making of Genius" is not a conventional biography
of the man but a cultural history of the interrelated origins of
modern science, the concept of genius, and the phenomenon of fame.
Beginning with the eighteenth century, when the word "scientist"
had not even been coined, Fara reveals how the rise of Isaac
Newton's status was inextricably linked to the development of
science. His very surname has acquired brand-name-like associations
with science, genius, and Britishness -- Apple Computers used it
for an ill-fated companion to the Mac, and Margaret Thatcher has
his image in her coat of arms.
Fara argues that Newton's escalating fame was intertwined with
larger cultural changes: promoting him posthumously as a scientific
genius was strategically useful for ambitious men who wanted to
advertise the power of science. Because his reputation has been
repeatedly reinterpreted, Newton has become an iconic figure who
exists in several forms. His image has been so malleable, in fact,
that we do not even reliably know what he looked like.
Newton's apotheosis was made possible by the consumer revolution
that swept through the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century.
His image adorned the walls, china, and ornamental coinage of
socially aspiring British consumers seeking to identify themselves
with this very smart man. Traditional impulses to saint worship
were transformed into altogether new phenomena: commercialized fame
and scientific genius, a secularized version of sanctity.
Handsomely illustrated and engagingly written, this is an
eye-opening history of the way Newton became a cultural icon whose
ideas spread throughout the world and pervaded every aspect of
life.
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