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David Berlinski

Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World Paperback – March 5, 2002

by David Berlinski (Author)

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Sir Isaac Newton, creator of the first and perhaps most important scientific theory, is a giant of the scientific era. Despite this, he has remained inaccessible to most modern readers, indisputably great but undeniably remote.
In this witty, engaging, and often moving examination of Newton's life, David Berlinski recovers the man behind the mathematical breakthroughs. The story carries the reader from Newton's unremarkable childhood to his awkward undergraduate days at Cambridge through the astonishing year in which, working alone, he laid the foundation for his system of the world, his Principia Mathematica, and to the subsequent monumental feuds that poisoned his soul and wearied his supporters.
An edifying appreciation of Newton's greatest accomplishment, Newton's Gift is also a touching celebration of a transcendent man.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Free Press
Publication date

March 5, 2002
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.59 x 8.44 inches
ISBN-10

0743217764
ISBN-13

978-0743217767
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Editorial Reviews

Review

New Scientist This is Newton brought to life. You step through its pages into his mind.

Julia Keller Chicago Tribune David Berlinski plus any topic equals an extraordinary book...Making simple and accessible that which had previously been murky and intimidating is Berlinski's speciality.

Hugo Rossi American Scientist Berlinski does a masterful job...The architecture of Newton's physics is laid out here clearly and sharply.

The Christian Century Berlinski draws an elegant portrait of Isaac Newton and his scientific discoveries that will captivate...A thoroughly engaging and sensitive guide to Newton's "soul-shattering worldview."

About the Author

David Berlinski is an essayist, philosopher, and mathematician. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton and has spent many years in various academic positions across America and abroad. He is the author of A Tour of the Calculus and The Advent of the Algorithm. He lives in Paris.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press; Reprint edition (March 5, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743217764
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743217767
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.59 x 8.44 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #939,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #818 in Mathematics History
- #2,262 in Scientist Biographies
- #4,652 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)

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Customer reviews

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4 star		9%
3 star		12%
2 star		1%
1 star		4%

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Xander M. Sherry

Single worst book I've ever read (part of.)

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

I got about a third of the way through Newton's Gift before I decided to cut my losses and stop wasting my time. The prose is not, as another reviewer called it, "beautiful" but more aptly described as "painfully bad." It's a thin book as biographies go, at only 174 pre-appendix pages, but if the pointless meandering nonsense that tells you nothing about Newton or that could have been more clearly and succinctly written had been edited out, it would be 100 pages shorter. Or more. If you want a good biography of Newton, check out "Never at Rest" instead. My recommendation is to give this one a pass.

If you don't want to take my word for it, read the "Look Inside" selections for some prime examples of how this book is written. Feel free to start at Page 1.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

AEvangelista

Issac Newton is brilliant BUT

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2020

Verified Purchase

The story of Issac Newton and the Calculus and his discoveries in the physics of light and gravity and the movement of the planets is well told. Berlinski added an appendix with the Calculus’s formulas to play around with.
But! Isaac Newton was not a very pleasant person—in my opinion.

I lied the book and sent a copy of it to my brother, who also liked it.

2 people found this helpful

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M. Lansdowne

Interesting book

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2019

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I enjoy reading many types of books. This book got my interest because I history and non fiction.

One person found this helpful

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Nico Brusso

David Berlinski's Gift

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2012

Verified Purchase

Don't be frightened. David Berlinski is a gifted writer. In "Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World," Mr. Berlinski is warm, enveloping, and rhetorically at the top of his game. He writes beautifully.

Mr. Berlinski does not call himself a mathematician. His Curriculum Vitae does not list numerous and continual treatises of interest primarily to mathematicians. He knows the field, at least through three dimensional vector calculus. His mastery lets him control the level at which he presents Newton's accomplishments to the reader. Berlinski mentions that Newton himself was less a mathematician than a physicist, which in no way diminishes Newton's supreme accomplishments. Berlinski compares the approaches of Newton and Leibniz, Leibniz being superior in simple and straightforward mathematical notation -- as the scientific world has clearly followed for the last three centuries. If your aim is to advance or refresh your learning of math, you will need to proceed through additional books, some of which, by the way, could be Berlinski's own.

Nor is Berlinski's intent to be a definitive biographer of Sir Isaac. If that is what you want, Berlinski gives a standard reference. Berlinski's focus is narrower. He presents Newton himself, his personality, peculiarities, personal relationships, and limitations. Are you going to like Newton as you read this book? Perhaps you will, but that is not the point. Perhaps he is not "likeable" as such. You will understand him more, and more importantly you will be introduced to his significance in the scientific world. You will find him as one of the most antisocial of men, most markedly during the so-called "miracle year" of his discoveries. Soon after becoming an eminent member of the scientific world, he loses interest in those studies and leaves it to others to advance them, turning instead to the rather mundane work of a sinecure he is given -- Warden of the Mint -- and waging a highly successful personal war against counterfeiting.

In closing, let me point out the Appendix to "Newton's Gift." Berlinski calls it "Descent into Detail." A nice touch, since as we all know, the devil is in the details, and you can guess what the descent is into. The appendix is a rapid and overall view of the math and physical concepts in the book. The first subheading is called "A Brief Mathematical Chrestomathy." An excellent word choice, for the reader's entry into Newton's world of advanced mathematics and the physical relationships of material bodies, benefits from the aid given by selected terms and figures to help understand the language spoken by the brilliant natives you will find there.

3 people found this helpful

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Alice Roddy

entirely satisfactory

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2019

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Just as described

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Great little book about a great great man

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2007

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The author did a marvelous job in trying to explain and simplify great mathematical concepts in order to be understood by a "normal" person.

The book also shows that Newton, although a man with one of the most powerful minds in history, was still a human, with very "pedestrian" weaknesses. That only enhance the greatnes of the man.

The book is very fast to read, and a great companion in the metro

5 people found this helpful

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Shannon Mentel

Loved ot

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2019

❤️❤️

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2017

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This is a great little book. A fascinating read!

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Laurence Paul

A Gift Given Freely - We Should All be Grateful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2012

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Berlinski offers a vague but valuable first insight into Newton's own sense of self-awareness concerning his science and its potential. The purpose of theoretical physics and its relativity to life itself are questions which often bubble to the surface of this intelligent but short examination of Newton as mathematical philosopher whilst also introducing the reader more concisely to the practical nature of Newton's developed theories. Calculus, light, optics, gravity and significant laws of mathematics (Principia Mathematica) are covered, but for my own liking, not quite adequately enough - often the maths remaining only a mere sketch. Berlinski evidences that Newton is a thinking titan, not only of his own age, but also for the industrial and technological ages which followed Newton's own lifetime. It's an easy read and the biographical content adequately shows Newton to be a somewhat flawed if difficult figure, withdrawn and brooding, as he struggles to succeed in melding his physics to an advocated science that, at its heart, remains biblically fundamental. At the very least we are provided with a notional Newton who offers tomorrow a wide reaching and inclusive account of how and why the world functions as it does. I'll read more Berlinski.

4 people found this helpful

Regular Amazon Reader

As described.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 22, 2019

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Great condition

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