Three crowns distinguish'd here in order do

If prayers can give me, what the wars deny. A great read, though heavy with repetition as the author presents each controversy. What we now learn in primary school, even though we may not understand the mechanics wis first thought, or revealed to Newton. Newton cannot be viewed outside of the times that produced him and it now unimaginalbe to us the magnitude of his discoveries. Though each rift and rivalry is dealt with separately, it must be remembered that Newton dealt with each almost at the same time and dispatched each with the cunning of genius. Throughout his life, Newton was embroiled in numerous controversies, many of his own making. This account is accessible to the non-mathmatical student of history amd is primarily concerned with the events that shaped the world's view of Newton's genius. This book captures both sides of this truly extraordinary man.This is a fascinating account of Sir Isaac Newton and the times in which he lived. Newton was an authentic genius with all too human faults. Christianson also explores Newton's less savory side, including his long, bitter feud with Robert Hooke and the underhanded way that Newton established his priority in the invention of calculus and tarnished Liebniz's reputation.

The book sheds light on Newton's later life as master of the mint in London, where he managed to convict and hang the arch criminal William Chaloner (a remarkable turn for a once reclusive scholar), and his presidency of the Royal Society, which he turned from a dilettante's club into an eminent scientific organization. Christianson describes Newton's creation of the first working model of the reflecting telescope, which brought him to the attention of the Royal Society, and he illuminates the eighteen months of intense labor that resulted in his Principia, arguably the most important scientific work ever published. There ensued two miraculous years at home in Woolsthorpe Manor, where he fled when plague threatened Cambridge, a remarkably fertile period when Newton formulated his theory of gravity, a new theory of light, and calculus-all by his twenty-fourth birthday. We follow Newton from his childhood in rural England to his student days at Cambridge, where he devoured the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, and taught himself mathematics. Christianson paints an engaging portrait of Newton and the times in which he lived. Now, in this fast-paced, colorful biography, Gale E. Quarrelsome and quirky, a disheveled recluse who ate little, slept less, and yet had an iron constitution, Isaac Newton rose from a virtually illiterate family to become one of the towering intellects of science.

Isaac Newton by Gale E. Christianson