latakiahaze's Full Review: Dava Sobel - Longitude: The True Story of a Lone G...
Dava Sobel's Longitude is the story of the search for a reliable method of determining position at sea. Latitude (the lines which run round the earth and include the equator) were relatively easy to measure by the position of the sun. Longitude was a lot harder, but crucial in reducing the number of ships lost at sea.
The book falls into the 'popular science' category of books and has the strengths of this style of book (accessible to a wide audience whilst being informative) but also its failings. The book entrances the reader with the story but fails to deliver the depth many readers want. To me it reads like a serious book that has been badly abridged - you get an anecdote that should lead into a deeper discussion and it doesn't. To be fair the life of John Harrison (the hero of this true story) suffers less than the introductory chapters but there were still several points where I wanted just that little bit more.
Her style is slightly chatty but well informed and is certainly captivating. The author's suppostions seem to largely be founded in fact - no wild unsupported theories are produced. The principal characters are fairly well described but their background and beliefs is so sketchily drawn they don't feel like real people and only allows a simplistic view of their actions. I would have liked more of the book devoted to a rounded analysis of the key figures.
Because of the books brevity the book is fast paced - the book is very much a page-turner and would be suitable holiday reading. Unfortunately the brevity also removes the space required for historical analysis - this is an historical story rather than an analysis of historical events. It's all very well setting up the astronomers as villains but there is no time devoted to their beliefs and viewpoint.
If you want a well written true tale of a man from humble origins solving a great scientific problem and having to battle against the skullduggery of astronomers that's a quick easy read, and don't want anything more this is an enjoyable read. If you want more than a hint of the history of navigation, horology, science, 18th Century beliefs, then you'll need to find another book. Personally I think the story of the watch/chronometers development is fascinating enough to keep a reader interested through a book twice this length but may be I'm in a minority. To be fair there is a good bibliography for further reading, but even as an introduction to the subject I found the book irritatingly lacking in depth.
Recommended as light read but don't expect too much.
Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for ...More at HotBookSale
Sobel presents the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of John Harrison s 40-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper, kno...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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