Newton: A Very Short Introduction
by Rob Lliffe
Oxford University Press, £6.99, ISBN 978 0 19 929803 7
Rob Lliffe is well placed to analyse the life and work of Sir Isaac Newton (or SIN as Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed dubbed him in view of his overbearing manner) as editorial director of the Newton Project, which aims to make the great scientist’s complete works available online.
Lliffe has made a brave stab in catering to the non-specialist. Unfortunately he had two obstacles: the first is the small space available, a problem when dealing with someone active in as many fields as Newton, and the second is that the magnitude of Newton’s achievements are difficult for the layperson to grasp, even without the mathematics, which are mercifully absent.
So Lliffe tries to sketch the context — Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes — in just a few pages. We skip through Newton’s career, from his childhood which showed early promise, through the Fellowship at Trinity Cambridge, occupation of the Lucasian Chair, his time at the Royal Mint, and Presidency of the Royal Society. Against this career progression we are given gobbets about his researches on optics, celestial mechanics and mathematics, as well as his work in theology, astrology and chronology. Then there are the feuds in which he engaged and an overview of how he has been treated by previous biographers to squeeze in. Unfortunately, if the reader does not have some grounding already, the descriptions are often too brief to be of much use. Terminology is left unexplained, and while Lliffe conveys Newton’s range of interests, topics are skimmed over with little detail.
This is not Lliffe’s fault. The problem is that Newton just cannot be squeezed into such a small compass. Despite its tag as an introduction, some prior knowledge helps enormously.
Fortunately for those who come away puzzled, the literature on Newton is a huge one, and the interested reader has plenty of choice when delving further into the accomplishments of this fascinating polymath.
Tom Ruffles
