The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward DolnickMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this overview of the painful transition into the modern world Newton helped usher in with Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (great) and bitter, year-slong disputes with Leibniz, Robert Hooke, etc. (not so great). At times, the august Royal Society seems like Stupid Redneck Tricks on YouTube for their attraction to explosions and suffocations. Still, this all came together to give us calculus, Newton's Laws, the Theory of Gravity, etc. and this was good enough for the industrial age and getting to the moon. The author does very well to explain the technical aspects in layman's terms.
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