Book Post 11: Michael Faraday and the Electrical Century by Iwan Rhys Morus

Book Name : Michael al Faraday and the Electrical Century

Author : Iwan Rhys Morus

Genre : Non-Fiction

What is it about? : About the great scientist Micheal Faraday and his place in the evolution of electricity.

How I came to read it :  I saw the book in our University Bookstore sale and promptly bought it as I am always on the lookout for science related books.

Did I like it? : Its an average read. As Chernobyl's Dyatlov would say 'Not great not terrible'.

Why/views/summary  : The book starts off with describing Micheal Faraday's early life when he was a kid working at a book shop. Malcolm Gladwell has a theory that to be successful you need to have the right kind of people in your life at the right time. In this Micheal Faraday was very lucky. In his first job at the Book shop he had a supportive boss who did not stop young Faraday when he did random experiments at the shop and read all the books and journals that came his way.  He even let Faraday visit a number of lecture series that use to take place for the public. From this point the author moves on to describe the science scene of those times. This is perhaps the best part of the whole book.

In the 19th century era electricity was making inroads into the society. There were many inventors and scientists working on different aspects of electricity. So rapid was the pace that almost every week bought a new development. Also popular among the public at this time was the public lectures or shows that inventors and scientists put up. Every institution of repute used to run their own lectures and shows to showcase their achievements. And public attended these in droves. Faraday grew up in these times and attended a number of these in his young age. He would go on to become a great speaker/showman himself later in life. At some point Faraday decided that a life of working at the bookshop was not for him and he was looking at opportunities in science.  His life changed when one of the regular customers at the book shop offered him tickets to Sir Humphrey Davy's lectures. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity as Davy was a legend at that time. Faraday attended all the lectures and got in acquaintance with Davy and soon landed a job as his lab Assistant at the Royal Institution.  This changed Faraday's life completely. Davy tutored him in experimentation among many other things. The teacher student partnership did wonders for both of them initially till Davy's death in 1829. When someone asked Davy what his greatest discovery was he replied in a flash 'Micheal Faraday'.

The book then meanders off to again describe the various developments taking place in the field of electricity. It talks about other inventors like William Sturgeon, who made the first electromagnet. Then Faraday's contributions including electromagnetic induction are described. The books mostly talks about the series of lectures he gave at the Royal Institution. He started a trend which continues to this day. Here is the link to the present day lecture series. 

Here lies the main weak point of the book. At no point is the significance of Faraday stressed upon and nowhere is his legacy talked about. This aspect of the book could have been improved. Overall a casual read. Except for the part where those lectures are described the rest of the book is pretty average.

Other Related Reads-
1. Empires of Light by Jill Jones - Amazon Link

Book Post 10: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Book Name : 'Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind'

Author : Yoval Noah Harari

Genre : Non-Fiction

What is it about? : The book traces the evolution of Humans from the earliest species to the present. This it does in a different way than the many other books on the same subject. This books takes an idea or a phenomenon and wraps the history of people around it. A unique approach. 

How I came to read it :  One of my friends suggested the book to me.

Did I like it? : No, I did not like it. Having heard so much about it from friends and family I had high expectations but it was a let down for me. I understand its a best seller but there are flaws in it that simply disappointed me.

Why/views/summary  : The author divides the whole books into 4 parts keeping in line with his view that Humankind had 4 key moments in its history. These 4 parts are:

1. The Cognitive Revolution
2. The Agricultural Revolution
3. The Unification of Mankind
4. The Scientific Revolution

Some of the ideas presented in this parts are brilliant. Take, for example, domestication of wheat. Harari states that Humans did not domesticate wheat. It is wheat that has domesticated us. This is supported by the fact that since wheat was grown humans had to stay at one place to look after it and protect it from diseases and animal attacks. Also Humans were always looking for ways to improve the yield and as the yield increased so did the population it supported. This multiplied over the years and slowly wheat was everywhere. Today it remains one of the most grown crops on Earth. This is a quite brilliant take on wheat. There are many more such ideas presented in the book. But at the same time at some points Harari verges on the boundaries of hyperbole like where he states that Agriculture is History's biggest fraud. Now stating that Agriculture changed how Humans lived and turned their life for the worse (Harari's views) is one thing but to call it History's biggest fraud is exaggeration and quite simply being careless. For me, as soon as I read that line I did not want to read further but I continued as I wanted to finish what I started.

Some good points that I found in the book are the way he talks about free market and how saying that in times of ethical issues free market will take care of itself is quite foolish. He elaborates on this point by giving the example of Slave trade in the past. Now when the Slave trade was rampant during the 16th to 19th century it was simply viewed as an economic thing. Importing cheap labor was something that helped the businessmen. Nobody thought anything was wrong in it. This was an instance that needed intervention which was beyond the economic or financial factors. It was an ethical one. Similarly, today there are a number of ethical dilemmas that the business world faces which needs intervention but some people say leave it the market itself because the free market will take care of such things. No it does not.

Then there is the point about 3 major unifying factors in History. They are Economic, Political or religious. No matter what instance you take in human history if humans gathered to do something together it has to be because of one of the 3 reasons mentioned above. Even today these stand as huge unifying figures. Then there is an explanation of how the small countries of Europe like Spain, Netherlands, France and Britain dominated the world in the 16th to 18th centuries. Their rise is attributed to the start of the credit system. Many expeditions that started in those times were sponsored by credit in these countries. Leading this were the Dutch. They soon became world leaders in the world before the British caught up with them. Interestingly there is mention of VOC also called the Dutch East India company. Its not mentioned in the book but VOC remained the worlds largest company for 200 years since its inception. It is said that many of the corporate practices that we see today are direct descendants of the VOC model. Its a topic that deserves a separate blog post. I had the chance to see VOC era buildings in a small town called Pulicat in India. Heres more about that trip.

One of the biggest flaws of the book is the complete disregard of the Islamic Golden Age of cultural,economic and scientific growth that happened from the 8th to the 14th Century in the middle east. Harari states that the scientific growth only started from the 16th century in Europe completely skipping the Islamic Golden Age. This is unthinkable. If purely talking about only the scientific impact of the Islamic Golden Age it is huge. One has to simply look at the contributions of Nasir-al-din-al-Tusi(Astronomy), Ibn al-Haytham(Physics), Al-Kindi (Chemistry) to how huge is that contribution. Biology alone produced such geniuses as Ibn al Nafis, Rhazes, Ibn Khaldun and Avicenna. (More about some of them in my post here). Most damning is that fact that there is not even a passing mention of the Translation movement of 9th century. It is largely forgotten in the west but for a book which claims to outline the History of whole mankind leaving out the translation movement if not the whole Islamic Golden Age is quite unpardonable.

Another point is how Harari passes over the Indian Independence Movement in just 2 or 3 lines. He is guilty of oversimplifying key events in history in a couple of lines completely ignoring the years, the factors and the complex geopolitical dynamics involved. He does this for may other events in History.

All in all, Sapiens does produce some brilliant passages, compelling ideas and notions but I think this book is a bit pompous in its claims and the author is guilty of sensationalism, oversimplifying complex issues and just pure carelessness.