The Invention of Air - a Book Review

a. Johnson, Steven. The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the

Birth of America. New York: Riverhead Books, 2008.

b. Best-selling author of four books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience, Steven Johnson's writings have influenced everything from the way political campaigns use the Internet, to cutting-edge ideas in urban planning, to the battle against 21st-century terrorism. Johnson attended Brown University where he received his undergrad in semiotics, then continued his education at Columbia University where he later received a degree in English Literature. Johnson, a contributing editor for Wired magazine and a monthly columnist for Discover magazine, remains in Residence at the New York University Department of Journalism. He lectures widely on technological, scientific, and cultural issues, both to corporate and education institutions. Cofounder and editor-in-chief of FEED, Johnson has created the revolutionary web magazine blending technology, science and culture with a truly innovative interface. Johnson wrote his bestselling book, Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter (2005), in which he states, "This book is an old-fashioned work of persuasion that ultimately aims to convince you of one thing: that popular culture has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging over the past thirty years." Steven's argument in Everything Bad Is Good For You builds on brain research he investigated in his previous bestseller Mind Wide Open: Your Brain And The Neuroscience of Everyday Life.(2004) In that book, Steven uses his own personality as the test case for describing how the new brain yields new understandings of human personality.

c. Johnson argued that good historical explanation emerged from multiple genres of knowledge. The Invention of Air "is a history book about the enlightenment and the American revolution that travels from the carbon cycle of the planet itself, to the chemistry of gunpowder, to the emergence of the coffeehouse in European culture, to the emotional dynamics of two friends compelled by history to betray each other."

The Invention of Air revolves around the life of Joseph Priestly, an 18th-century English theologian, dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works. Johnson used the life of Priestley, usually credited with the discovery of oxygen after he isolated it in its gaseous state, to outline the connections between science, politics and religion. Priestley, after fleeing with his family to America, became the first great scientist-in-exile to seek safe harbor in America after being persecuted for his religious and political beliefs at home. Supported by the new industrialists, who also tended to political liberalism and religious dissent, Priestly shared his ideas with his friends, using two new networks of the time: the coffeehouse and the postal system. Radicals saw this as a sunlit future within this revolutionary age. In the 1780s, Priestley had established himself in his native England as a brilliant scientist, a prominent minister, and an outspoken advocate of the American Revolution who had sustained long correspondences with Franklin, Jefferson, and John Adams. Ultimately, his radicalism made his life politically uncomfortable, and he fled to the growing United States. Here he was able to build conceptual bridges linking the scientific, political, and religious impulses that governed his life. Priestley, a mentor to Thomas Jefferson and protégé of Benjamin Franklin, played several crucial roles in the intellectual progress of the United States between the Revolutionary War and the early 1800s. He helped by giving the founding fathers optimism and hope during times they, otherwise, may have given up. Through his close relationships with the Founding Fathers he exerted profound if little-known influence on the shape and course of our history.

d. Johnson stated that "To answer the questions of why some ideas change the world, you have to borrow tools from chemistry, social history, media theory, ecosystem science, geology. …Those are our roots. This book is an attempt to return them." Historical writing cannot be limited to just one specific field of study. Johnson illustrated that, in the age of Priestly and the intellectual renaissance that was taking place, information flowed much easier between subjects than in the past. The Invention of Air demonstrated how communication of information needs to continue in modern times in an attempt to preserve the knowledge of our ancestors.

e. Johnson wrote The Invention of Air to draw a line between communication of information during the time of Priestly and now. Johnson believed