The Age of Wonder (Richard Holmes, 2008)

(484 pages)

Book club selection (via me; session held (via Zoom) January 30, 2022).

I had read this in 2010, my summary from back then is here.  I think I liked it better this second time around.

Notes used for book club remarks:

Age of Enrichment - starts c. 1800 - how this fit in.  Industrial Revolution and trade preceded . . . knowledge, efficiency, productivity - why we are wealthy today.

General approach - lots of science/technology - this alone made the book worthwhile for me - some of the details about how the pioneers functioned, biographical touches

The difference from similar books:  made far more interesting by linking these developments to how it felt, how it affected thinking about the universe, religion, man's place, etc., biographies

Banks - brought the exotic to life - a different lifestyle - seeing new worlds, new value systems.  Praised by Linnaeus!  Then his long role at Royal Society.

Herschel - size of the universe; likelihood of other galaxies.  Finding Uranus. His sister.  Geography suited to celebrity visitors - fixed location, near London etc.

Ballomania - thinking of today's space entrepreneurs - private wealth funding.  Immediate recognition of military utility.  

Mungo Park. The "unknownness" of Africa.  Imperial considerations.

Davy - Lengthy story but perhaps the most interesting.  The notion that chemistry could explain nearly everything, including workings of the brain and replacement of the soul. That we can invent safety lamps etc to deal with most any problem.  Then discovering how complicated it all is. Important as we consider events of 19th and early 20th century, their optimism was not entirely irrational. Incredible level of interaction with famous poets and others. Defining what “science“ would be going forward, the idea of hope (similar to poetry), looking forward to better things.

Did the Romantic poets and artists inspire the scientists (using the newly-coined term), or vice versa?  Strong synergies, I thought this part was really interesting.

Throughout the book, not this chapter alone, the idea that we knew so little circa 1800s.

When folks look back in say 2222 - how will we look circa 2022?

The ongoing tension with France, the way Bonaparte dominated British thinking. Children were threatened with Boney, not a bogeyman!

Scientists as polymaths . . . Goethe (Sorrows of Young Werther) and study of light.

Frankenstein chapter - this was probably the most interesting - another example of developing a new way of understanding key processes - thinking of Kalinithi and looking at brain lobes.  Vitalism.  Studying the cranium, classifying.  Things we haven't made much progress understanding.

Fear of science destroying wonder - not new.  

The War that Ended Peace (Margaret MacMillan, 2013)

(645 pages)

Discussions of the run-up to World War I are incredibly interesting . . . but I was a little reluctant to take on this one, in part thinking it might be redundant with The Guns of August and The Proud Tower.

And it was, to some extent.

But still - a useful review, lots of analysis was fresh to me.  Good discussion about the situation in Germany, Russia, France, England, U.S., Austria-Hungary, Italy - the alliances that formed and re-formed, some of them rather unusual.

Two things that struck me most - 

One:  the way that the leaders of the various countries spoke of war as all but inevitable.  Seems unbelievable.  But it was so widely believed.

Two:  the problems of identity politics (the various nationalities) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire - did that ever sound familiar!  An ongoing problem - one certainty is that emphasizing nationality (or other identity) in resolving issues isn't going to end well.

Pacific Crucible - War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (Ian Toll, 2012)

(491 pages)

Christmas gift from PJr & Nedda.  First of a three-part trilogy.

Reviewers have compared to Rick Atkinson's trilogy on WWII in Europe - high praise - and I think it's apt.  Readable; detail but not too much; biographical background on key figures without getting bogged down.  Leaves the reader looking forward to the next installment.

I liked the description of background in Japan - events leading to the war - the mood of the country, as least as the leaders sought to mold it.  1905 naval battle with Russia; then into China.

I don't recall reading about Alfred Mahan - 19th century thinker on naval strategy - sounds like he was incredibly influential.  And probably had great ideas.  Except airplanes came along.

Pearl Harbor discussion.  The incredible speed of Japanese advances in the early months.

The Doolittle raid - gave me new ideas about this - if only the idea of launching bombers off an aircraft carrier, for the very first time, with no practice.  Strong winds on the day of the attack were good/bad news - the good news is that taking off into the wind works better with more wind; the bad news is that the carrier is pitching up and down.  Pilots sought to time the pitching - accelerate on the downward pitch, then catch the upward pitch to get aloft.  Impossibly short runway.  No practice.  It worked, well enough.

Coral Sea - long/hard to follow.  Difficulties of successful reconnaissance; difficulties of hitting bombing goals; useful in next chapter (Midway).

Decryption - didn't know much about this in the Pacific theater but it was crucial (so much attention in Europe).  This was fascinating.

Battle of Midway - with Coral Sea discussion, gave me a better idea of how these aircraft carrier battles took place - where ships never see one another (I think these fleets were nearly 100 miles apart).  Difficulty of hitting targets - but it only took one or a few hits on a given target for complete success.  Utilization of decryption team's input - big effect on Midway battle.   This part was also a great read.