stevenberlinjohnson.com: Salon's Review Today

So Andrew O'Hehir's review of Invention in Salon today is one of those responses that you dream about having as an author. Not just because it says a lot of nice things, but also because it really gets exactly what I was trying to do with the book, and puts it in the larger context of my other books. (He's particularly deft at explaining the connection between the last three; most people find the video games, to cholera, to chemistry sequence a little baffling.) It's also very well written--I may have to steal a few of the ways he describes the story to use on the book tour...

"The Invention of Air" is a slender, deceptively casual book, easy and indeed delightful to read. But it aims high. It isn't a work of conventional history or biography, though it contains snippets of both, but more like a case study in the history of ideas that hints at a grander analytical theory. Johnson is a wide-ranging enthusiast with a catholic appetite for intriguing facts and a Marxian appetite for searching for structures that underlie social phenomena. This book is full of fascinating asides about the relationship between northern England's coal-based economy, the Industrial Revolution and the culture of scientific inquiry they bred; or about the way London's cultural economy suddenly exploded when coffee replaced beer as the gentleman's beverage of choice.

If this sounds at all interesting, and you happen to live in Philly, come out to the Franklin Institute tonight at 7PM. Should be a very special night, given how important both Franklin and Philadelphia were to Priestley.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of seven books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

Comments

Wow.

I just discovered you through the SXSW website. Definitely going to buy Invention and wish I lived in Philly!

Take care.

Posted by: Ms. Single Mama | January 09, 2009 at 01:21 PM

congratulations on the response the book is getting. i am waiting (not so) patiently for the copy i ordered from one of my favourite Sydney bookshops!

Posted by: amy | January 09, 2009 at 04:05 PM

Congrats

Posted by: Maine Screen Printers | January 12, 2009 at 01:41 AM

Great, congratulations..!!

Posted by: Kansas screen printers | January 12, 2009 at 01:42 AM

Well, thats great.

Posted by: Guam Screen Printers | January 12, 2009 at 01:44 AM