Jack RepcheckRezensionen

THE MAN WHO FOUND TIME was highly recommended in recently published THE GEOGRAPHY OF GENIUS.

Heading south on the North Sea along with two friends who would become his champions,
James Hutton found the shale and sandstone outcrop/unconformity at Siccar Point that would prove
his erosion-sedimentation-uplift theory.

His logic and reasoning took him to the next step of the origin and timeline of the earth,
with journeys to Arthur's Seat and Glen Tilt.

Not sure that readers need so much extra information on The Bonnie Prince and the history of The Church.

It may be enough to know that not much has changed in Church intelligence since Copernicus and Galileo.
Just a modern mental IInquisition.

More maps (Edinburgh!) and photos or drawings of geology formations would enhance the tale.
As well, the author offers great build-ups to the Eureka locations, yet delivery feels anti-climactic.½

Short and easy to read, but mainly demonstrates how little is actually known about Hutton. Gives nice digestible passages about the Scottish Enlightenment and scientific ideas of the time. Intriguing is that Hutton's grasp of geology came literally from hands-on engagement, namely his work with the soil of his own farm. My interest partly sparked by a visit to Siccar Point, which gets only a passing mention in the main text but the writer returns to it in a postscript where he tells of his field encounter with a herd of scary cows - they scared me too!

This book was really interesting. It covered a person I had heard of before, but not directly. As this book states, James Hutton postulated that the Earth was actually older than the Bible would have us believe. Some other people came up with theories for that too, but they didn't have satisfactory evidence to back up their claims. So Dr. Hutton goes out and finds proof of all of his theories, but there are detractors of course. Most people were wedded to the idea of the Biblical creation for many years after Hutton died, but then Charles Lyell comes along and rediscovers Hutton's theory.

I thought the book was well written. It established the culture of the times, how Newton had been a believer in the Biblical Creation and the history of trying to count years from the bible. That in itself was really fascinating. I knew they could count off years that were given, but I didn't know the precise way it was done. It turns out that they tried to predict the Second Coming, and flubbed the numbers to make sure it happened after they were dead. So then finally someone came up with the precise date of Creation as being October 23, 4004 BC at Noon. This undoubtedly held back progress for years, but whatever.

Back to the book itself though. It covers the years that Hutton had lived and touches upon some of the years of the Scottish Enlightenment. It talks about the luminaries of those times and lists Hutton as someone deserving of as much praise as Galileo, Newton, and Copernicus. This is something that I can agree with in the sense that Hutton turned a preconceived notion on it's head, and demanded hard facts.

Dr. James Hutton is now considered the "Father of Modern Geology" but this was not always the case. Scientists, up until relatively recently, had to contend with Mother Church and its interpretations of the age of the Earth based on the Bible. Hutton was no exception to this.

Repcheck is able to blend the life of Dr. James Hutton with the events around him in Scotland, England and the Continent into a fabulous story. By giving the reader a fantastic glimpse into eighteenth-century Edinburgh society, we can truly begin to understand the Scottish Enlightenment and its profound impact on the rest of the world.

As Repcheck points out, Dr. James Hutton is not a household name while Charles Lyell is when it comes to the history of geology. I have to admit that I had never heard of Hutton and I took a number of geology classes in university. Now that I have read this book, I have a greater appreciation for Lyell because some of his ideas derived from Hutton's theory.

If you have any general interest in sciences and their development in the seventeenth, eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, then this book can and will give you a great introduction to the Scottish Enlightenment and the works of this particular individual and the field of geology.

Happy Reading,

An insight into the other players involved in the research and publication of "the sun is the center of the universe" theory. Overall a dry read, but some interesting passages.

This is an economical, but perfectly adequate biography of James Hutton and a sketch of his theories regarding the processes which shaped the face of the planet in prehistoric and historic times. Hutton's theories clearly overthrew the belief widely held in the late 1700's that the Earth was no more than several thousand years old, a figure based on Biblical references. This book is ideally combined with Simon Winchester's 'The Map that Changed the World', and perhaps something on Alfred Wegener, the man who first suggested the possibility of continental drift, and who was - like Hutton - ridiculed and largely ignored in his own lifetime. Repcheck appears to have hit exactly the right note here. Recommended.

Hutton remains relatively obscure when it comes to the ground-breaking research and conclusions he made during his life.

Whilst it is tempting to think that events such as the French revolution and American War of Independence overshadowed his accomplishments, there were other scientists of that time whose accomplishments are well recognized.

It may in fact have been his personal style and that of his writing that made his research less accessible, even to the scientific community. He was also stepping on the religiously popular theory of the 6,000 year old Earth.

It took the likes of Charles Lyell and even Charles Darwin to more eloquently restate and reinforce Hutton's work (in the case of Darwin, through a different branch of science, but one that equally required enourmous periods of time, far in excess of 6,000 years, to accomplish the changes he was studying in species).

This easily read book does an excellent job of providing an historical perspective to the times in which Hutton lived, and the obstacles he faced for having his theories accepted. From Bonnie Prince Charlie to Marie and Pierre Curie, it paints a wonderful picture of the ground-breaking changes going on the scientific world, and the men who played a part in the Scottish Enlightment during which Hutton lived.

It also highlights the responsibility of men of means to contribute in a positive way to the world and not just to make money for the sake of money.

This is a short book, not much over 200 pages, whose purpose is to make James Hutton (1726-1797) known to the general public. In this it is successful; I had not previously heard of the man. The author is an editor, not a geologist, and it shows; the book reads very much as a secondary source, with information from here and there pieced together. It includes exactly one map, of the UK, with most of the mentioned locations marked, enough to get by, but it is utterly lacking in illustrations of geological features (though it does have a glossary), so the interested but ignorant layperson such as myself must resort to google, which is annoying. The personal information is extracted primarily from a biography of James Hutton by his friend John Playfair, and alas not a great deal is known. Also alas, James Hutton wrote his magnum opus as he was dying and in significant pain, and it is apparently less coherent than he was in real life, and fell into obscurity. His work was rediscovered decades later by Charles Lyell, who gave him credit, but who became the famous one, an influence on Charles Darwin. This book is not profound, but it is useful. It presents a sketch of political and intellectual developments during the Scottish Enlightenment. James Hutton lived in and near Edinburgh, and overlapped with David Hume and Adam Smith and James Watt, and Joseph Black, an unfamiliar name to me, but he was a physician and scientist, and social liaison for the others. James Hutton was up against two forces: biblical chronologies, and Abraham Werner's theory of earth formation. A chapter is dedicated to biblical chronologies. At the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, the emperor Constantine was so impressed by the systematic chronology of Eusebius, who had compiled it from multiple sources, that he ordered it to be published and circulated. This served as the basis for subsequent chronologies, all of which predicted the Second Coming of Jesus Christ not too far in the future when the earth would be 6000 years old. Bishop Ussher, whose chronology got into the King James Bible, was toward the end of a long line. Geology then, was a matter of fitting reality into this chronology, and where there was conflict, traditional interpretation of scripture won. Abraham Werner was a generation younger than James Hutton, but a published mineralogist and professor, so in a position of influence. His theory was a synthesis of others, essentially a hot earth gradually cooled by a universal ocean that had evaporated to reveal land; he deliberately did not specify age. Succinctly, James Hutton entered the University of Edinburgh at age 14 (not unusual), studied medicine there and elsewhere, partnered in a chemical factory that generated an income for the rest of his life, inherited land not far from Edinburgh and became a farmer, returned to Edinburgh and joined a committee to construct a canal. At the university, he was influenced by professor Colin Maclaurin, who had worked with Isaac Newton and was intent on spreading the scientific method. As a farmer, he was technologically inventive, and had ample opportunity to observe and extrapolate from natural processes, notably that erosion of surfaces and composition of rocks form a cycle. John Playfair wrote: "They were neither of them, even at that time, entirely new propositions, though in the conduct of the investigation, and in the use made of them, a great deal of originality was displayed." With this as the essential insight, James Hutton searched for supporting evidence, refined his theory, and presented it to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1785. He realized that the earth must be far older than generally supposed, but had no means of determining how old. This is the gist, fleshed out with investigative excursions around Scotland and England and Wales, other prominent theories, subsequent discoveries, and current status. I am insufficiently educated in the basics to absorb many details, so for me the relative brevity of the book was just about right, and despite the flaws I would recommend it.

(read 11 Sep 2011)

This is a fine book about not only James Hutton, but the Scottish Enlightenment of the Late 18th century as well. Most people have never heard of such a social movement, but the University of Edinborough put forth a long list of major figures, like David Hume and Adam Smith, to name a few more widely known figures. Hutton is remembered for codifying some of the fundamental principles of geology (see #40 above), and should be remembered as a revolutionary figure in science in the same breath as Galileo, Newton and Darwin. It is clear and takes the time to explain any technical terms that come up. One of those cross-platform (so to speak) histories, like [The Calculus Wars], which covers an array of levels of history in an effort to highlight a particular stratum.

Hutton was the first 'scientist' to challenge the accepted Biblical age of the earth and his theories were highly controversial in his time. Add that to the fact that his book was rushed to completion while he was literally dying of kidney failure, which compromised its quality, and that it was published in London during the American Revolution, it was basically ignored by the general population. A few esteemed professors throughout Europe fought against it bitterly, having their own competing theories that pounded the round peg of fact into the square hole of Biblical chronology. The winner of the two views was Hutton's, which has been supported over and over again by many avenues of experiments and observation. A view that all rocks were created either at the Creation with a capitol C or precipitated into their current form by Noah's Flood, and any evidence to the contrary had been deemed heretical until Hutton's ideas were accepted.½

Because of a paucity of information on James Hutton, who did not write extensive letters like so many others of his era did, the author fills in this slim volume with stories that are only peripherally related; for instance, an entire chapter on Bonnie Prince Charlie and his war, though there is no information that Hutton was involved, or that he had any particular opinion on the matter, only that he happened to live nearby at the time. It's unfortunate there isn't more information, because it would be truly interesting to be able to explore how deep time was discovered at the depth we've been able to examine the process by which Darwin slowly approached the concept of natural selection.

I picked this one up at the planetarium gift shop mostly because of the title, I think. I knew about Copernicus, and that he was the discoverer of the sun-centered solar system. But when I got into the book, I realized that there was so much I didn't know about him.

Copernicus was born in modern-day Poland. After his father's death, his uncle, a bishop, took care of him and his brother and paid for their university education. It was there that Copernicus began to study astronomy for the first time. But he never really did what you would expect. He got a degree in canonical law, not astronomy, and returned to Poland to become a canon. He almost completely gave up astronomy, except for his own private studies, which he didn't publish. And he became the town doctor. I also found that he became a military hero after he saved his town of Warmia from invasion and negotiated the peace.

It wasn't until the second half of the book that we get to understand how Copernicus and his discoveries became public knowledge, all because of his friendship with a young Lutheran mathematician and scientist.

I think this book could have easily been twice as long, and would have been better. But for an overview of Copernicus, his background and his discoveries, it is a good place to begin. I liked the pictures and illustration, and the last chapters, which covered the astronomers who succeeded him. Recommended. 3.5 stars½

(posted on my blog: davenichols.net)

The story of Nicolaus Copernicus is one of the most interesting tales in all of science history. In Copernicus' Secret, Jack Repcheck takes a look at the man who wrote the book which set the stage for a fundamental revolution in science.

Repcheck's writing is at times tedious. There were moments when his narrative bogged down heavily in details of relationships, dry descriptions of locales, and subjective reporting of possible events (such as things that may have been said or experienced which are largely supposition by the author). There were stretches where I wasn't really enjoying the book.

But then, there were large sections of the book that were outstanding. The details of Copernicus's life, and those who influenced and were influenced by him, are vivid and presented along with a unique account of the religious and social upheaval going on in Reformation-era Poland. The relationship between Copernicus and Rheticus is told very well, despite the inclusion of occasional suppositions.

Overall, despite the weaknesses, this is a fine account of the life of a significant figure in history. The book is fairly brief, with text of less than 200 pages, and while it sometimes bogs in off-topic details, the overall presentation is informative and largely enjoyable. Three and one-half stars.½

Through much of the 1700s and before, two assumptions dominated perspectives on history of the earth, due to the pervasive effects of Christian ideology. The first is that the earth is less than 6000 years old, and the second, that Noah's flood accounts for fossils as well as the deposition of layers of rock.

The visionary James Hutton (1726- 1797) was the first to put forward both facts and a detailed theory that challenged this perspective. Three principles can be attributed to Hutton: (a) the earth is very old, almost unimaginably so; (b) current geological processes are no different from those occurring in the past; and (c) "subterranean heat" has been an important causal agent in formation of the earth's crust. With these ideas and the evidence for them, Hutton laid the groundwork for the nascent science of geology.

This concise biography offers a readable and informative account of Hutton's life, work, and lasting influence. In the words of Walter Alvarez, it is a "beautifully written and irresistable little book". Part of its value is that it places Hutton in the context of his times. Thus, one early chapter traces the history of biblical chronometry, another describes Edinburgh, where Hutton received his education (known as "Auld Reekie" for the pervasive odor of raw sewage on the sidewalks). Yet another chapter discusses the Scottish Enlightenment, the remarkable period during which Edinburgh flourished as a center of intellectual activity; this was the milieu that fostered the development and reception of Hutton's ideas. Chapters on Hutton's life focus on his education and intellectual influences; his 13 year career as a farmer (during which he made observations that led to his ideas on the long term effects of erosion); and his move back to Edinburgh, where he helped oversee construction of a canal, and stayed to develop and publish his great geological work, his two volume The Theory of the Earth (published in 1795).

Hutton's work did not have immediate influence, and Repcheck explores several reasons why -- that it was poorly written, that it was very technical, and that it was published at a time of political ferment. More plausible than these reasons is the fact that Hutton's ideas were strongly resisted by both scientific and religious orthodoxy. The contemporary biblical geology of Abraham Werner was vastly influential, and his followers made special effort to refute Hutton's claims and interpretations. The accuracy and significance of Hutton's views were not recognized until Charles Lyell (1797-1875) publicized and expanded on them in his (1830-1833) Principles of Geology. Hutton's ideas (through Lyell's work) greatly influenced Charles Darwin, as he began making his own geological observations and formulating his new theory of descent with modification.

Repcheck makes a case that James Hutton stands with Copernicus, Galileo, and Darwin as visionaries who helped to free science from the religious orthodoxies of their times. Hutton's name is barely known outside of the field of geology. However, Repcheck's book contributes to an appreciation of a historical figure who contributed mightily to our understanding of the natural forces that have shaped our earth over the past 4.6 billion years.

A short but excellent biography of James Hutton. He is often considered the father of modern geology. In the late 1700’s, Hutton took a close look at the rocks and soil in the world around him and explained why the alternating layers (sedimentary, volcanic intrusions etc) could not be the result of world wide flood. His work led to our understanding of the antiquity of the earth and served as the basis of Charles Lyell's theories of geology.

Repcheck places Hutton with Copernicus, Galileo, and Darwin for breaking science out of an erroneous, theology-driven paradigm. Hutton was among the first geologists to approach the field as a science through theory and observation. He was also the first to posit the theory that the earth continually cycled through erosion and volcanic pressure, which also implied ancient, immeasurable age. He died with the theory widely discredited, but it later triumphed due to the influence of his friends Black and Playfair, combined with later support by Lyell and ultimately through credit to it given by Darwin.

Copernicus never wanted to publish his manuscript that offered mathematical proof for a heliocentric model of the universe (not to mention an earth that rotated on its axis once every 24 hours). Apparently he was loathe to be ridiculed.

This small and enjoyable volume gives details on the life of Copernicus and the efforts of his contemporaries to get him to publish his ground-breaking work. (Early on, he did publish a summary of what he had found, albeit without the supporting equations.)

Copernicus was in trouble a lot, but not because of his astronomy. He was a Canon of the Church, but put off taking vows to be a priest because it seemed he liked the company of women. Furthermore, he didn’t shun adherents of the Prostestant Reformation as his Bishop would have preferred. In fact, one of his last students, Rheticus, was from the hotbed of Lutheranism itself, the University of Wittenberg.

What makes this book so unexpectedly interesting is all the information it imparts on the beginnings of the Reformation, and how and why it was anathematized by the Catholic Church. We also learn how, for both religions, the practice of astrology had critical importance. And we get insights into the characters of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon (drafter of the Augsburg Confession).

Speaking of confessions, I must admit I liked this book most for its religious history. And the combination of religious and scientific tumults: what could be bad? Very pleasant read.

(JAF)