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A review by wyntrchylde
Revolutionary Science: Transformation and Turmoil in the Age of the Guillotine by Steve Jones
2.0
Revolutionary Science: Transformation and Turmoil in the AGe of the Guillotine
Author: Steve Jones
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Publishing Date: 2017
Pgs: 353
=======================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Genre:
Non Fiction
Science
History
France
French History
Why this book:
I love history. And this is roughly contemporary to the biography of the Marquis de Lafayette that I read a year or so ago.
_________________
Favorite Quote:
“The Republic has no need for geniuses.” Attributed to the judge who sentenced Antoine Lavoisier, the father of chemistry, to the guillotine.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
After a chapters long deviation, the author returned to the wider group of scientists, artisans, and politicians of the Revolution. Almost seemed like he wanted to write 3 books and conglomerated them into one, one on the science and scientists of the Revolution, one on chemistry, and one on the rise of the potato, the famine(s), and the culprits that cause them. All of these were part of the same basic era of history, but the deviation shows a change in tone as if they were written at a different time.
Confirmation Bias:
I knew the Terror had torn through the aristocracy and the peasantry both. I never tracked the impact it had on science. How many discoveries were stillborn in the basket at the guillotine’s base?
Juxtaposition:
Looking at this after the way segments of American society treated scientists during the height of the COVID pandemic definitely puts you in mind of what happened during the French Revolution.
Anachronism:
Paris, in literature and history, is basically described like it was the Vegas of its day. But then, they get into the nitty gritty, and it was a hellhole. One in four women between the ages of 15 and 40 being prostitutes due to no opportunities and little hope. A graveyard, the Cimetiere des Innocents, being mounded up above ground level by almost two meters and having such a composting effect that it devours flesh from bones in mere days, and occasionally bursts into neighboring basements. Des Innocents collapsing in on itself was the reason that bones and skulls began to be moved to the catacombs, which I had always assumed were from before the Terror. Tenement squares as far as the eye can see. Yeah…sounds delightful. And I don’t know as much about Parisian history as I thought. The Lafayette biography that I read a year ago touched on much of this, but damn. It was a tinderbox awaiting a match.
The Unexpected:
I don’t know why, but I thought that Bastille was still standing, Tower of London style as a monument to the Revolution and the Terror and the inhumanity of the system that existed before and the inequities of the system during. And the way the story is told in history sounds like the Storming freed the prisoners, which appears to be true. But instead of being a huge prison population freed from injustice, it was like seven people: four forgers, two mental inmantes, one of whom thought he was Julius Caesar, and an aristocrat committed by his family for sexual excesses.
_________________
Last Page Sound:
Despite wandering off the track a bit, it kept my interest.
Author: Steve Jones
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Publishing Date: 2017
Pgs: 353
=======================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Genre:
Non Fiction
Science
History
France
French History
Why this book:
I love history. And this is roughly contemporary to the biography of the Marquis de Lafayette that I read a year or so ago.
_________________
Favorite Quote:
“The Republic has no need for geniuses.” Attributed to the judge who sentenced Antoine Lavoisier, the father of chemistry, to the guillotine.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
After a chapters long deviation, the author returned to the wider group of scientists, artisans, and politicians of the Revolution. Almost seemed like he wanted to write 3 books and conglomerated them into one, one on the science and scientists of the Revolution, one on chemistry, and one on the rise of the potato, the famine(s), and the culprits that cause them. All of these were part of the same basic era of history, but the deviation shows a change in tone as if they were written at a different time.
Confirmation Bias:
I knew the Terror had torn through the aristocracy and the peasantry both. I never tracked the impact it had on science. How many discoveries were stillborn in the basket at the guillotine’s base?
Juxtaposition:
Looking at this after the way segments of American society treated scientists during the height of the COVID pandemic definitely puts you in mind of what happened during the French Revolution.
Anachronism:
Paris, in literature and history, is basically described like it was the Vegas of its day. But then, they get into the nitty gritty, and it was a hellhole. One in four women between the ages of 15 and 40 being prostitutes due to no opportunities and little hope. A graveyard, the Cimetiere des Innocents, being mounded up above ground level by almost two meters and having such a composting effect that it devours flesh from bones in mere days, and occasionally bursts into neighboring basements. Des Innocents collapsing in on itself was the reason that bones and skulls began to be moved to the catacombs, which I had always assumed were from before the Terror. Tenement squares as far as the eye can see. Yeah…sounds delightful. And I don’t know as much about Parisian history as I thought. The Lafayette biography that I read a year ago touched on much of this, but damn. It was a tinderbox awaiting a match.
The Unexpected:
I don’t know why, but I thought that Bastille was still standing, Tower of London style as a monument to the Revolution and the Terror and the inhumanity of the system that existed before and the inequities of the system during. And the way the story is told in history sounds like the Storming freed the prisoners, which appears to be true. But instead of being a huge prison population freed from injustice, it was like seven people: four forgers, two mental inmantes, one of whom thought he was Julius Caesar, and an aristocrat committed by his family for sexual excesses.
_________________
Last Page Sound:
Despite wandering off the track a bit, it kept my interest.