Customer Reviews

Revolutions in the Earth: James Hutton and the True Age of the World

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This is a very, very good book -- its combination of Hutton's philosophy of knowledge with his theory of the Earth is a great step in the right direction -- the first in a popular book cencerning Hutton. It aslo places Hutton in his intellectual millieu really well.

Baxter shows all his narrative and novelistic skill in this wonderful sketch of the life and thoughts of James Hutton.
He adroitly sets the scene with a very full account of Ussher's biblical chronology for the world - against which 'modern' geology strained to progress.
We learn about Hutton, the agricultural innovator, as well as Hutton, the natural law thinker and Hutton the scientific observer.
Shot though the narrative are glimpses of Edinburgh and the Scottish Enlightenment, with compact yet substantial portraits of Hutton's contemporaries and colleagues - such as Hume, Playfair, Watt. And his opponents, Werner and Kirwan.
Finally the book concludes with the work of Playfair and Lyell and some snippets to bring events up to date.
Overall, if you want a readable, sensible, thorough biography which does justice to the man, the age and the science, this is an excellent one.