|
|
|
Galileo: A Life
by James Reston
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Perennial (1995-04)
ISBN: 0060926074
EAN: 9780060926076
Dewy Decimal #: 509
Paperback: 336 pages
SKU: V074APV
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Clean unmarked pages. Clean unmarked cover. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. All orders include an e-Book about starting your own Internet Business in PDF format. FREE Domestic DELIVERY CONFIRMATION! We ship daily Mon-Sat and will let you know when your item has shipped along with your e/DC number. [HI, AK, PR, VI, GUAM, SAIPAN & West Coast customers, please use Expedited Shipping, otherwise it may take longer than the estimated 14 business days.] Items are from a smoke free and air conditioned environment.
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
Vividly depicting the brilliant scientist and dramatically portraying the turbulence and richness of the era in which he lived, a chronicle of Galileo's career focuses on his invention of the telescope, which forced a dangerous confrontation with the Inquisition.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Alas the power of a Church with civil authority
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-07-25
This book gives a prime example of why our forefathers wanted to keep the Church and the Governemnt separate. What the church, the Catholic Church specifically, did to Galileo simply because he dared to embrace the belief that the earth revolved around the sun was tragic. Once again the author takes historical, truthful data and tells an emotional story of a tragic, historical event. This book is a must for everyone.
|
|
Beyond the science & religion collision
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-12-28
4 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a fine biography that brings to life one of the greatest men to advance our civilization.I read this book because I have always found the relationship of Galileo's ideas and the Roman Catholic Church to be one of the most intriguing chapters in church history. The book goes back to his childhood and highlights his major intellectual accomplishments and his relationships with family members and friends. His illegitimate children and how they were percieved by society was an eye opener. As a result he sent his daughters to the convent because no one would want to marry them. I wonder how many other women ended up nuns as a result? His days while attending school were very interesting, his university teaching jobs more interesting, his relationships with other intellectuals and politicians of his age even more interesting but his relationship after presenting his scientific theories on movement of the heavenly bodies the most fascinating. It makes you wonder about the church and some of the science that it is at odds with today won't be looked at years down the line as backwards and wrong as well. The time period of Galileo's life is brought to life to reveal all of its majesty and warts.I found myself wanting to read more about Galileo after reading this book and have since read another entitled "Galileo's Daughter." What a brilliant mind and tragic figure Galileo was. If you like history or biographies this will be a good book for you.
|
|
Great addition to Galileo library
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-02-13
If you already know something about Galileo, this book will be a wonderful addition to your knowledge base. If you are a newcomer, this book is a good introduction, but it will leave you wishing you knew more about his experimental method, his scientific writing, and his inventions. This book places Galileo in the context of his time and place -- and showing how he influenced his era (and eras after) -- and it also leaves you wanting a more traditional biography that tells you more about what Galileo did.
|
|
Galileo: A Life
Rating  (2)
Date: 2006-01-07
6 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you are looking for a biography that discusses Galileo's scientific work, you will be disappointed. Reston must, of course, mention this great thinker's discoveries, but that is as far as it goes. There is little about the influence of his discoveries on the scientific community or how it shaped the world afterwards. I would have expected this to be one of the central themes considering the subject of this biography. The book deals almost exclusively with Galileo's struggles with the church. It is obvious that Reston has no scientific background. He should have picked someone else to write about.
|
|
A FINE ADDITION TO THE BIOGRAPHIES OF AN IMPORTANT FIGURE
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-09-20
7 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), sometimes called the founder of modern experimental science, butted heads with church authorities, his colleagues, and a number of his patrons.
As recently as little more than a decade ago, the voice of this indefatigable genius was heard again when, some 350 years after being accused, tried and condemned by the Roman Catholic Church for espousing the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun, the Vatican admitted that it was wrong about Galileo.
Galileo's father taught his son music and encouraged him to become a doctor. But, while studying medicine and the philosophy of Aristotle at the University of Pisa, Galileo made his first important discovery - the law of the pendulum. From then on he turned his attention to mathematics.
The time of Galileo is brilliantly evoked by James Reston in this splendidly researched story of an idealistic and egotistical genius. By chronicling Galileo's life in the first person and utilizing his journals, the story becomes an enthralling one for readers as the conflict between science and religion escalates.
Reston's work is a fine addition to the biographical history of one of the most important figures in Western culture.
- Gail Cooke
|
|
|
|
|