A Short History of Chemistry: Isaac Asimov from Intuition to Modern Science
The concision, readability and teaching skill so typical of Isaac Asimov make A Short History of Chemistry an excellent tool for anyone who wants to approach this science.
Author: Isaac Asimov (1920–1992), who held a PhD in chemistry
Title: A Short History of Chemistry (1965); Spanish edition Breve historia de la química
Format: English paperback (Doubleday Anchor)
Scope: History of chemistry from prehistory to the twentieth century
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0385036736 (ASIN 0385036736)
From Intuition to Discipline
Asimov traces the development of this field of knowledge from the moment humans first began, intuitively, to change the nature of substances, up to the modern age, when chemistry, through the gradual acquisition of methodological rigour and a clearly defined field of study, became a fully fledged scientific discipline.
A Chemist Telling His Own Story
Asimov was a trained biochemist who taught at Boston University before becoming a full-time writer, and it shows: he explains fire, metals, alchemy, the discovery of the elements, atomic theory and the periodic table with the same effortless clarity. Each step is presented as the answer to a question left open by the previous one.
The Main Turning Points
Asimov’s story has a clear shape. The ancient Greeks speculated about elements and atoms without experiment; the alchemists, in Alexandria, the Islamic world and medieval Europe, developed laboratory techniques while chasing gold and the elixir of life. The decisive break came in the eighteenth century, when Antoine Lavoisier used careful weighing to overthrow the phlogiston theory of burning, showed the role of oxygen and established the conservation of mass. John Dalton’s atomic theory in the early nineteenth century, Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table of 1869 and the discovery of radioactivity and the electron at the turn of the twentieth century carry the story into the modern age.
Science as Detective Work
Asimov presents each discovery as the solution to a puzzle that had baffled earlier chemists, which makes the book read almost like a series of detective stories. He also takes care to explain why wrong theories, such as phlogiston, seemed reasonable at the time, an important lesson for students who imagine that past scientists were simply foolish.
Written by a Chemist
Asimov earned his doctorate in chemistry from Columbia University and taught biochemistry before devoting himself to writing. His expertise gives the book authority, and his famous clarity makes it accessible. Written in 1965, it inevitably stops before many later developments, but the history it tells up to that point remains sound.
Companions
Readers who enjoy it could go on to Asimov’s broader New Guide to Science, reviewed on this blog, or to modern popular histories such as Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon, which tells the story of the periodic table through anecdotes.
Why History Helps Students
Learning chemistry through its history has a practical benefit. Concepts that seem arbitrary in a textbook, such as the mole, valence or the arrangement of the periodic table, make sense once you see the problems they were invented to solve. Asimov shows, for instance, why chemists needed a consistent system of atomic weights before Mendeleev could spot the pattern in the elements, and how Mendeleev’s boldness in leaving gaps for undiscovered elements, later filled by gallium, scandium and germanium, convinced his colleagues. Students who read this book alongside a first chemistry course often find the course itself easier.
The Reviewer’s View
The original review praised Asimov’s concision and teaching skill, and that is exactly right: the whole history fits into a short book without ever feeling rushed.
Who Should Read It
It is short enough to read in a few evenings and a perfect complement to a first chemistry course. The English edition is an older paperback; readers in Spain may find the Spanish translation easier to buy.
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Part of the reading recommendations featured on books.sapiensverbum.com.
