The Fellowship: The Story of the Royal Society and a Scientific Revolution: The Story of a Revolution by John Gribbin - Aug 2009

Penguin, Aug 2009. Re-issue. Paperback. The Royal Society makes a welcome new subject for history of science books, next to all those biographies. The origins of the first scientific clubhouse are scrupulously tracked by John Gribbin, who makes a fine job of portraiting John Wilkins, the driving force behind the constitution of the Society. As he was not a great scientist himself, he is easily forgotten even though his contribution to science, in the form of the Society, is tremendous.\r\n\r\nSo, this is interesting reading, the downside being the superfluous amounts of irrelevant extras. It's really not necessary, for instance, to deal extensively with Galileo in a book like this. It would have gained quality if it had been edited to roughly half its size.