Once in a blue moon, a discovery in historical records may reveal monumental findings which reshape the way scholars think about and interpret events of the past; Robyn Arianrhood is one such contributor to one of these great rediscoveries in lost information. Arianrhood is an Australian researcher and scholar who specializes in general relativity theory and the history of mathematics. She is an adjunct research fellow at the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University. Though not a historian by trade, Arianrhood’s scientific and mathematical interests have led her to write books on key figures in the world of science. These include Seduced by Logic about two female mathematicians, Émilie du Châtelet and Mary Somerville, who proved highly influential to scientific developments, especially as related to Isaac Newton, and Einstein’s Heroes about the influence of James Clerk Maxwell, Michael Faraday, and Newton’s scientific discoveries on Albert Einstein. Her latest work, Thomas Harriot: A Life in Science, brings new light to the titular forgotten man of science in the early days of the discipline.
Early in the book, Arianrhood professes the importance of the intellectual fervor of Harriot and argues that telling the story of his life and discoveries help “fill in some of the gaps in our picture of that transitional era” (2) in the development of modern science. His contributions are especially important “because of the quality and versatility of his best work, which, like Newton’s, spanned a range of topics, mathematical, theoretical, and experimental” (3). Many of these discoveries took place contemporaneously to the minds of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei and prior to the likes of Newton and René Decartes, to all of whom he worked in similar fields of discovery as well as others. His interests knew no bounds, from linguistics to optics and refraction to population growth estimates and others still. Truly a peculiar man of intellectual history, most puzzling is how his discoveries and works were never learned of until fairly recently, the most important question which Arianrhood works to recover and share in this cohesive and accessible biography.
Acknowledging that not much record existed of Harriot’s early life, Arianrhood briefly described Harriot’s character and background, from a “plebian” family in England, Harriot was able to improve his lot in life by receiving a degree from Oxford and moving to London where he managed to attract the attention and patronage from the eclectic Walter Raleigh. The first several chapters discussed their relationship and the work Harriot did for Raleigh, including working on navigational methods in preparation for one of Raleigh’s first of many trips to the Americas and, after their return, learning the Algonquin language as well as developing a universal phonetic alphabet to use to write in the Carolina Algonquin language. Harriot eventually made his way to America himself during the trip where Raleigh had attempted to create the first English colony on Roanoke Island, a trip where Harriot recorded some of the first interactions between the English and Native American Indians. Association with Raleigh led to Harriot’s introduction to Henry Percy, the 9th Earl of Northumberland, who became Harriot’s long-term patron which gave him the ability to explore any and all intellectual pursuits he desired. At around the same time, Harriot was pulled into the first of many controversies related to Raleigh, this being accusations of atheism, a serious charge in Elizabethan England.
Beginning with chapter twelve, Arianrhood, detailed Harriot’s scientific and mathematical developments under Northumberland’s patronage. Harriot continued to work through issues with navigation, exploring the use of the heavens as well as exploring the issues with cartographic representations of the world and their use in sailing. In addition, he began to branch out into other areas of science beginning with a fascination with optics and the refraction of light. He also developed a system of symbolic algebra, more closely related to modern day expressions of mathematics, in order to express his ideas in the sciences accurately and concisely then the traditional “rhetorical” algebra of his day. In the meanwhile, Harriot’s association with Raleigh led to more dire problems as both – as well as Northumberland – became implicated in the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Harriot was imprisoned for several weeks but released due to extremely tenuous evidence. Raleigh and Northumberland, more controversial and higher-status men, were still held imprisoned in London Tower. Despite the imprisonment of his friend and patron, Harriot was still looked after by Northumberland, allowing Harriot to continue his work in which he further explored the nature of light through rainbows, and then further still to the heavens once more. His increased interest in astronomy led to his corresponding with Johannes Kepler who acted as one of his intellectual sounding-boards for ideas and discoveries, including mapping the surface of Earth’s moon and the discovery of Jupiter’s contemporaneous to Galileo. Raleigh once again inadvertently caught Harriot up in another controversy before Raleigh’s execution in 1618, a deeply troubling event for Harriot. Harriot continued to work through his issues and interests in sciences making several important breakthroughs despite his failing health. In 1621, Harriot succumbed to cancer that had spread through his body. Arianrhood closes the work with an exploration of the numerous volumes of work that Harriot had developed but never published which subsequently disappeared for centuries, only to be finally rediscovered in the ancestral home of Harriot’s patron, Northumberland.
Despite the lack of coverage in much of the past, Arianrhood is able to reconstruct an extremely thorough view of this intellectual giant largely lost to history. She vehemently and persuasively argued that much of the work that Harriot had done was truly foundational to much of the works of other great men of science if only they had been discovered. She acknowledges that because much of his work was never published, Harriot was little more than a footnote for some and unknown to many of his scientific and mathematical successors. Overall the book provides an entertaining, engaging, and enlightening view of early modern England and the origins of modern science. The material, despite being highly technical and quite niche, is fairly accessible to most readers, a consequence of Arianrhood’s goal to write this as a popular history in order “to join [other scholars’] efforts by bringing Harriot to a general readership” (6). Arianrhood is by no means the first to reveal the work or history of Harriot, a point she acknowledges several times, citing most influentially the work of historian John W. Shirley who wrote about Harriot in 1983 and on whose work Arianrhood relied most heavily. This is the basis for the strongest criticism of Arianrhood’s work; despite its lofty topics and noble goal, the work is not the most scholarly from a historical perspective, relying mostly on synthesis of secondary sources and lacking generally throughout on endnote citations. To clarify, this by no means should deter a reader from grabbing this book off the shelf as it is quite a good work, but it by no means should be the last stop on exploration of the life and work of Harriot. Additionally, paucity of evidence available can be excused somewhat by the nature of the person discussed as well as the difficulty of the topics which need to be explained to any layperson who wishes to read the work.
