The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

Steven Johnson's follow up to The Ghost Map is a tour de force of science, politics and religion.

The Invention of Air centres on Joseph Priestley, while taking in the founding of America, the development of environmental science and the renewal of a friendship torn apart by political difference.

Johnson offers the reader a way of understanding events: a way that could replace the Hegelian view that everything depends on individuals and the Marxist dialectic that change is about the clash of the classes as they struggle through different periods of production. This way of looking at the world matches how Joseph Priestley worked.

As Johnson says:

"But for Priestley, these three domains were not separate compartments, but rather a kind of continuum, with new developments in each domain reinforcing and intensifying the others. When Lindsey opened his Unitarian Church, Priestley defended the move against critics who claimed it would undermine the existing religious authorities by invoking the very same principles that governed his scientific research: expose as many ideas as possible to as many minds as possible, and the system will ultimately gravitate towards truth and consensus."

This multi-disciplinary approach that says to understand one thing one has to understand many is how scientists are now looking at the ecosystem. They start from the basis that to understand what is happening one needs to factor in not just physics or meteorology but many subjects that impact on the way the earth works.

It might seem an irony that Priestley's identification of photosynthesis led to ecosystem science but perhaps there was an inevitability about it.

As well as working out how plants function, Priestley was one of the scientists who discovered oxygen. He was, as one French writer said of him, the 'founder of chemistry'. All the while he related his discoveries to the London-based club of Honest Whigs, including one Benjamin Franklin and later the Lunar Men.

Priestley's political and religious activity led him to John Adams, the second US President, and Thomas Jefferson, the third. Eventually, it would lead him to America.

Priestley was a radical Whig and his approach to truth would be a theme developed by John Stuart Mill who would set out the principles of free speech in On Liberty: that all opinions must be considered in order to help find the truth. Mill also rather liked borrowing ideas from other political movements: he listened to conservatives and socialists refining his liberalism as he went on.

Johnson provides a sweeping narrative of Priestley's life all the time putting into context how his actions came about. Johnson approaches the story as if it were an ecosystem making sure he explains all the elements that matter.

At the heart of all this is the importance of the network. Priestley gained much from his involvement with the Honest Whigs and later the Lunar Men. Very importantly, he shared his findings with interested parties, thus helping their work. Both groups shared too allowing Priestley to develop ideas and go back to his experiments. This 'crowdsourcing' method is only now coming into its own as the technology of the World Wide Web allows all of us to share ideas and experience.

The book is best seen as part of a body of work by Johnson. Once again he explores networks, science, how we organise ourselves and how we live. And once again he does it brilliantly and seemingly with ease.

The Industrial Revolution would no doubt of happened without Priestley but Johnson shows he certainly helped shape it. Industrialisation led to specialisation, mass production and closed groups. Only now, in the information age, are we seeing a new open-source culture where individuals can be in control of their work. As a radical Whig who believed in progress, Priestley would be proud.