Review by Choice Review
This book can be compared to S. Kean's The Disappearing Spoon (CH, Dec'10, 48-2086), and is similarly aimed at general audiences. Writer/journalist Aldersey-Williams (The Most Beautiful Molecule, CH, May'96, 33-5108) describes Periodic Tales not as a chemistry book but an account of many of the elements, their history, and their effect on human history, politics, culture, art, and technology. The elements are organized in an "anthropological" fashion in sections within five thematic parts. "Power" addresses the elements' association with political power, military might, energy, and wealth, and includes essays on gold, the platinum metals, iron, carbon (as charcoal), and plutonium. "Fire" covers sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, fluorine, oxygen, radium, sodium, and helium. "Craft" covers tin, lead, silver, copper, zinc, aluminum, calcium, titanium, niobium, and tantalum. "Beauty" covers cadmium, chromium, cobalt, arsenic, vanadium, neon, and antimony. "Earth" discusses the elements known as the rare earths. Unlike The Disappearing Spoon, there are few factual errors (limited to the introduction), and the writing is better and more entertaining here than in that book. The groupings seem strange but become more obvious in the reading. Aside from a reproduction of Mendeleev's original table, no other periodic table is shown. Useful as supplemental reading in science, history, and art courses. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. R. E. Buntrock formerly, University of Maine
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Although the periodic table is a tried-and-true concept, retelling its backstories produces results as malleable as the elements themselves. Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon (2010) shaped those tales into biographies of elemental discoverers. For Aldersey-Williams, the Curies and Lavoisiers are departure points for excursions into cultural histories of the elements as they've been used as artistic media, referred to in literature, and manufactured into consumer products. Culture's remorseless revamping of value and taste propels Aldersey-Williams' explorations through five headings under which he groups the elements. Power connects gold, iron, and plutonium as atoms important to rulers and states. Beauty admires the chromatic hues of heavy metals, pretty in pigments but deadly in the environment. Craft molds stories about everyday elements like tin. Fire kindles tales about sodium and other light emitters, and in Earth, Aldersey-Williams travels to the cradle of rare earth elements, Sweden. With his topical range delivering novelties on page after page, Aldersey-Williams subtly connects the dots and writes in an attractively understated style, two prose qualities appealing to nonscientists looking for entertaining science reading.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
British author Aldersey-Williams, whose range includes architecture, design, and science, delves into the elemental-the perfect subject matter for his lighthearted erudition. Aldersey-Williams presents a veritable blizzard of facts, anecdotes, and cultural allusions in this informative look at the world's building blocks. Beginning with gold, he ponders the intriguing question of the source of its mysterious value, quoting the ancient philosopher Pliny the Elder who wisely said, "the first person who put gold on his fingers committed the worse crime against human life." When pursuing chlorine, Aldersey-Williams invokes Wilfred Owen's WWI poem "The old Lie," comparing it to John Singer Sargent's painting, Gassed, from the same period. Seemingly unremarkable lead is unmasked as a source of two of the most formative changes in western culture: the foundation for the type in Guttenberg's printing press and ammunition. Whether discussing arsenic's poisonous past or emerald's color, which "we are biologically programmed to appreciate," Aldersey-Williams puts truth behind the notion "each allocation [element] is a little bit of our civilization." His virtuoso tour of the periodic table reflects its full complement of the human condition. (Apr.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A contextually thorough examination of the periodic table of elements.Most oftenassociated with high-schoolchemistry class, the periodic table is underrated. Its very construction, first introduced by Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev (18341907) in 1869, innovated the way in which scientists categorized elements (by atomic number)and allowed them to predict missing elements according to where they would fit (by periodic relatedness). Now totaling 118, each element is unique in its chemical makeup, physical manifestation and cultural significance. Aldersey-Williams (British Design, 2010, etc.) tells the stories of these elements, reminding us that nothing of the world we know would be possible without them. The author details how elements can dictate economies (gold), love (platinum), war (plutonium) and technology (lithium); how elements can be applied as a cure-all in one era, yet shunned as a poison the next (mercury); how iron in meteorites hint at the mysteries of the universe and also provide us with the building blocks of modern cities. Writers and artists from Nabokov to Calder refer to elements in metaphor as well as utilize them physically, andelements are woven throughout cultural mythologies,from the ancient Greek goddessArtemis, who carries a silver shield, to dystopian fiction, in which theyellow light ofsodium street lamps seems omnipresent, to the mystery writer Agatha Christie, whose use of the poisonous element thallium in one of her novels may have saved real lives by educating readersto itssymptoms. Throughout this comprehensive survey, Aldersey-Williams writes with great enthusiasm and describes how he conducted his own experiments to illuminate a certain property or application. The author's passion and witkeep the book from being weighed down by its scope, and instead casts elemental inquiry with intrigue.A lucid, enjoyable collection of stories that, element by element, demystify the iconic periodic table.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
