The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton And The Discovery Of Earth's Antiquity - Hardcover

Repcheck, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 073820692X ISBN 13: 9780738206929

Publisher: Perseus Books Group, 2003

Synopsis

There are three men whose contributions helped free science from the straitjacket of theology. Two of the three-Nicolaus Copernicus and Charles Darwin-are widely known and heralded for their breakthroughs. The third, James Hutton, never received the same recognition, yet he profoundly changed our understanding of the earth and its dynamic forces. Hutton proved that the earth was likely millions of years old rather than the biblically determined six thousand, and that it was continuously being shaped and re-shaped by myriad everyday forces rather than one cataclysmic event. In this expertly crafted narrative, Jack Repcheck tells the remarkable story of this Scottish gentleman farmer and how his simple observations on his small tract of land led him to a theory that was in direct confrontation with the Bible and that also provided the scientific proof that would spark Darwin's theory of evolution. It is also the story of Scotland and the Scottish Enlightenment, which brought together some of the greatest thinkers of the age, from David Hume and Adam Smith to James Watt and Erasmus Darwin. Finally, it is a story about the power of the written word. Repcheck argues that Hutton's work was lost to history because he could not describe his findings in graceful and readable prose. (Unlike Darwin's Origin of the Species, Hutton's one and only book was impenetrable.) A marvelous narrative about a little-known man and the science he founded, The Man Who Found Time is also a parable about the power of books to shape the history of ideas.

About this title

About the Author

Jack Repcheck is an acquiring editor at W. W. Norton with a long career in publishing great works of science. He holds an M.A. degree in Irish Social History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lives with his wife and five children in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

In this engaging account of scientific discovery, Repcheck (an acquiring editor at Norton) aims to elevate the little-known Scottish geologist James Hutton (1726-1797) into the lofty company of Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin, as one who wrested modern science from the "straight jacket of religious orthodoxy." Hutton, claims Repcheck, was the first to propose that the earth was shaped not by a cataclysmic Great Flood, but rather by "the inexorable forces of wind and rain, tides and storms, volcanoes and earthquakes" over a far longer period than the 6,000 years biblical scholars said was the planet's age. Repcheck frames his narrative around Hutton's theory, weaving together the many historical threads that led to this paradigm shift in the conception of geological history. There aren't many popular histories of science that can hop from a thousand years of Church doctrine about the age of the earth to the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Scottish rebellion of 1745 without missing a beat, but Repcheck's comfortable style and enthusiasm for his subject permeate his book. He does a fine job of laying out Hutton's theory in the context of the Scottish Enlightenment as well as its consequences for later thinkers (most notably Darwin). Repcheck's account should appeal to anyone who's curious about intellectual history, geologist or not. (June)claims, in his book The Seashell on the Mountaintop (see p. 59), that his subject, Nicolaus Steno, discovered the science of geology and challenged the 6,000-year-old age of the earth.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Modern geology began with James Hutton, who looked to the ground rather than holy writ for clues about the age of our planet. He flourished during the Scottish enlightenment, which also saw the rise of his friends David Hume and Adam Smith; at that time, biblical scholarship's estimate of a 6,000-year-old Earth was widely accepted. How this number was derived-- it made sense even to Isaac Newton--is part of the interesting background material in this biography of Hutton, which also digresses into the politics of Hutton's Edinburgh in 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie arrived in town to raise the Stuart standard. Not much is known about Hutton, which is why Repcheck elaborates on these settings, for just a few letters and geological writings, as well as an admirer's memoir, exist to indicate what manner of man he was. Repcheck makes the most of the material, incorporating into Hutton's haunts and jaunts in Scotland the then-orthodox theories of Noah's flood, which he found wanting. Fluidly informative, Repcheck will easily snare readers of popular science. Gilbert Taylor
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Edition details

• Publisher: Perseus Books Group
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 073820692X
• ISBN 13: 9780738206929
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256