Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (Dava Sobel, 1996)

Quick and easy read. I didn't realize that determining longitude for sailors was so difficult, nor the attendant dangers. Basically, folks far out at sea were able to find latitude - but were guessing at longitude. Especially on a longer voyage, this could be deadly.

Apparently there were numerous attempts over the years, but no good solution. Reliance on tactics like "dead reckoning" was dicey.

A British ship returning from battle ran aground with great loss of life; with other disasters, the government was prompted to throw some serious money (>$4.5 million in today's dollars) behind finding a solution.

There were two main approaches thought most likely to succeed: a highly accurate clock (permitting the navigator to know the difference in time from London); or extensive star charts.

This book focuses on John Harrison, who worked on a clock. I didn't realize how inaccurate clocks were up to this point (Harrison was working on this in the mid-18th century). He had to figure out a way to keep the clock precise on a pitching ship that faced extremes of temperature and humidity. He seemed to have absolutely no background for the task, but somehow figured it out. The powers-that-be that ran the prize commission favored the star-chart approach, and placed all sorts of roadblocks in Harrison's way. But he succeeded.

I had no idea "Longitude" would overlap with concepts in this book by Umberto Eco - including the race for a solution, the idea of using a wounded dog on ship to bark in sympathy with a dog on land (hopefully not a serious idea), the clocks, etc.

And - by another coincidence - this book overlaps with another that I'm reading about the royal society (under Maskelyne) that mistreated Harrison (but supported folks like Herschel).

Memoirs of Hadrian (Marguerite Yourcenar, 1951)

I don't quite know what to make of this book. Reviews were highly favorable; it seemed like a topic I'd enjoy a lot. Probably I'm missing something. I do believe one of the problems is that some of Hadrian's musings sounded like Montaigne essays, only not as compelling.

But still.

The story is quite interesting; the comments from the author about her experiences and goals with this work are fascinating. She was struck by a quote from Gustave Flaubert: "Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone."

This led her to a multi-decade effort to write memoirs from Hadrian's perspective.

I don't know much about the various emperors, but Hadrian apparently was one of the greats. He did far more than construct a big wall in Britain. The book goes through his ascent to power, military career, loving Antinuous (in an Achilles-Patroclus sort of way) (with the Antinuous thing resulting in significant follow-through, as described here), dealing with issues in Germany, Egypt, Roman politics, etc. Ruminations on impending death; this was written as a guide of some kind to Marcus Aurelius at the time Hadrian's health was failing.

A minor note: he recognized that stretching Roman interests all the way up into the Afghanistan area would be a mistake . . .

It seems that a movie version is in the works, scheduled for release in Italy this year (2010).

Five Germanys I Have Known (Fritz Stern, 2006)

I would highly recommend this book - it was unexpectedly personal, interesting, even moving. Also unexpectedly helpful for me in piecing together some threads of German history.

Stern lived through "five Germanys": a few years as a youth in Weimar Republic; Third Reich; postwar West and East Germany; unified Germany after the Berlin wall came down.

But he also wrote interestingly about pre-World War I Germany. About how political immaturity of the area compared to at least some other nations - Germany didn't come together until 1870 - persisted into 20th century. Germany energy went into Bildung (self-formation and education) (Bildungsroman stories popular to this day) and Wissenschaft (science); if at risk of Bildungsphilister (cultured philistine); at any event, not much opportunity to put energy into politics. ( This resonated with themes in the Goethe and the Holy Madness book, among others.)

Stern's family included a line of eminent physicians. Had converted away from Judaism a couple generations back. Plenty of interesting family connections, including Einstein. The religious conversion, such as it was, didn't help in the Third Reich. The family emigrated to NYC just in time; Stern ended up as a student and long-time professor at Columbia (along with many other roles).

Some items:

1. He had a great relationship with Jacques Barzun (whose recent book I like so much) - who also was at Columbia.

2. Had a good way of writing about how Jews and liberals were scapegoated for the WWI defeat.

3. Interesting to think about how Jews converted to Christianity in Germany and elsewhere . . . we had touched on this when performing "Elijah" by Felix Mendelssohn. Pressures everywhere . ..

4. His retelling made the Nazi dangers seem more personal - folks losing positions in universities, etc. Hiding books in home library. Watching conversations. Even in the early days before Nazi power had been consolidated.

5. What an interesting, difficult idea - shifting borders - Stern's family was in Breslau -which ended up in Poland (as "Wroclaw") after the war - some pretty hard feelings about this which took awhile to resolve.

6. A big focus was the lingering question about why the Germans stood by in the face of Nazi behavior; Stern referred to National Socialism as a "temptation" - it's hard to imagine the depth of Nazi participation (whether as enthusiasts, "mere collaborators", or whatever) that ran through Germany in the 1930s and 1940s; how possibly to address this in the postwar era? Fritz Stern - an American - as an unlikely but effective voice in framing the issue.

There was a lot in this book.