lyzadanger’s review: “What I hoped would be an educational, historical read about geology turned out instead to be mostly an elegiac to the alleged personal brilliance and, well, worthiness of the early 19th century geologic pioneer, William Smith. I dove in wishing for details, what I got was spates of almost whimpering testimonial about how slighted the morally unassailable Mr. Smith was by his colleagues and the general churchiness of his contemporary puritan English society. Basically: Think biography here, not history or geology, and you’ll have more accurate expectations.

While I agree with most of Winchester’s arguments–religion stood in the way of deeper scientific inspection, for example, he had a tendency to repeat them so often that, even as an adherent to the concept, I was put off. I should have counted how many times he repeated the notion that drawing-room dandies and dilettante geologists of the nascent Geological Society were BAD, and the practical, muddy, romanticized “real” geologists like Mr. Smith were where it was at. Tiring.

There were brief runs of interesting historical fact and glimpses into Regency life that made it tolerable. It also ended on a cheerful note, which was reassuring.”

Harper Perennial (2002), Paperback, 352 pages
tags: borrowed, history, geology, england, 19th century, nonfiction, read, readin2007, 50 book challenge

Tags: geology, nonfiction