The Map That Changed the World: A Tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption

The book has all the usual attributes of a pacy historical read: a self-educated, unrecognised scientist spends years roaming the British countryside, compiling a map of the geological layers beneath the surface, only to have his ideas ripped off and to wind up homeless and penniless in Yorkshire with a wife who is going bonkers. And it gets better: in a bizarre Dickensian twist, Smith finally gets his just accolades when he is recognised by a kindly liberal nobleman and is reintroduced to London society as the geologist par excellence. Of itself, the story would be more than enough recommendation but there is a subtext running though the book that is in many ways just as compelling--namely, how some parts of history get written in stone and others in dust. Most secondary-school students get to learn of Charles Darwin and The Voyage of the Beagle. Yet how many people could stick their hands up and say they had heard of Smith? But is evolution any more important a field as geology? Is history ultimately an exercise in who has the best PR? Winchester may not have the answer, but he'll certainly make you think.--John Crace

Smith did not set out to produce a geological map of the British Isles, but to earn a living in the canal boom years before the advent of the railway era in Britain. The Somerset Coal Canal is another one of his legacies, and he also worked extensively throughput the Somerset coal field, to the South and West of Bath. His true insight may well have been at Mearns Pit, in High Littleton in this coal field. Like many noteworthy discoveries, Smith took many years to work out his ideas, to publish them (and even more to get credit for them).

Geology was at the forefront of science in late 18th century. There were lots of gentleman-scientists, who had rock collections. Slowly, Smith sought to bring order to the series of rocks that were visible in Britain, and he did this by comparing fossils from different locations. His insight was to realise that the order of rocks (in terms of strata) was passed on; if A is above rock B, and B is above rock C, then A must be above rock C. Seen from the 21st Century, that seemed obvious, but at the time it was a real struggle to breakout of the dogmas of the era. At the beginning of Smith's life, Bibles were still printed which declared the date of the earth's creation.

Simon Winchester has written a thoroughly absorbing account of Smith's life and work, and inhabited the pages with snippets of information about the life and times. It is well researched, and uses letters and diary entries of Smith and his contemporaries that survive. Smith cuts a figure of tragedy at times, with disappointment seeming to follow him around. His ideas were all but stolen, he spent some weeks in jail for debt in the summer of 1819, and he missed out on several chances to work abroad, staying for hollow promises of work in London.

I enjoyed the line-drawings of fossils that headed each chapter, and the glossary of geological terms was a useful addition. I also never realised that the house that has an inscribed tablet championing Smith (a little over 4 miles from where I live, myself at the Northern limit of the Somerset coal field) is the wrong house! A very good read, and one of the growing series of history of science books published in the last few years. What Smith's contemporaries failed to do in the early years of the nineteenth century, Simon Winchester has done; hailed a truly remarkable man who travelled the length and breadth of Britain to produce a lasting product; a map. Fortunately Smith was recognised in his lifetime (eventually) and honoured accordingly. Now we can do the same.


A LITERARY TIME MACHINE   August 14, 2001
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

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If ever you can judge a book by its cover, this is it. The copper embossed dust cover hints at the treasure buried within. From its binding, to the choice of paper to the fine etched illustrations, this is a very classy book.

Winchester takes us aboard one of the most effective literary time machines ever to land on a bookshelf. His writing sweeps us back 200 years to an England that was going through an industrial, scientific and social revolution.

Coal was king. Coal was the fuel for steam power. In turn, steam drove Britannia's economic engines.

William Smith was skilled as a geologist, engineer and cartographer. His observations and maps allowed landowners to discover and exploit the coal resources that lay beneath their land.

Smith's science went well beyond that of defining the strata containing the valuable coal. He devised the concept of stratigraphy, which would allow the relative age and spatial distribution of sedimentary rocks to be quantified.

It was this work, that inspired Smith's fellow geologist Charles Lyell to write "The Principles of Geology". When Charles Darwin went on his voyage of discovery it was the geological insights of Lyell and Smith that allowed Darwin to conceive of the vastness of the geological time scale. It is Winchester's thesis that Smith's map changed the world because of this direct influence on the most revolutionary scientific thinker of the 19th Century.

In the mid-1800s thanks to Darwin, geology was considered to be "The Father of Sciences".

The beauty of Winchester's writing is his evocation of the world in which Smith lived 200 years ago. His description of the English landscapes brings home to us the relationship between the underlying rocks and the aesthetics of the natural scenery we see around us.

Winchester's skills as a travel writer shine through. He surveys not only the landforms but also the social and political landscapes of this era. His clever use of the vocabulary of the era gives us a world inhabited by such people as beadles, tipstaffs and summoners. We travel in a conveyance called a myrmidon. His research is impeccable. We learn that there was an actual prison in London called "The Clink", and that the game of rackets or squash was invented in a debtors jail.

This book deserves its status as on of the great books of 2001. It should encourage readers to go back to Winchester's early work, particularly his travel writing. For readers who wish to learn more about Smith's influence on science should read Lyell's "Principles of Geology" which is still in print as a Classic. This is the book that Charles Darwin took on his voyage of discovery. "The Map That Changed the World" will take you on your very own voyage of discovery.


Exquisite Intellectual, Scientific and Social History!   September 22, 2001
Donald Mitchell (Boston)
21 out of 23 found this review helpful

This book deserves more than five stars!

I enjoy intellectual, scientific, and social history, and was delighted to see all three forms combined in one outstanding book. The result provides many interesting and helpful perspectives on the development of three-dimensional geological maps and their later use in the sciences of geology and biology, and in looking for mineral reserves. The book's main drawback is that it is done as a trade book, rather than as a scholarly work. Overlook the obvious gaps in documentation though, and the story will justifiably reward you.

The details of this book are lovingly developed. Let's begin with the illustrations. The jacket dust cover can be unfolded to display a large, colored replica of William Smith's first geological map of Great Britain. Each stratum is colored in so it is darkest near the bottom and lightest near the top. You also get two smaller versions on color plates within the book. In identifying similar strata, he relied on differences in ammonite fossils, and 18 line drawings open 18 chapters so you can see how these compare to one another. You also get line drawings of oolitic limestone in which fossils are often found, and the types of fossils used as weighing stones and marbles on the farm where Mr. Smith grew up.

To make the connection to Mr. Smith's thought process, the author has visited many of the sites where Mr. Smith made his initial observations that led him to develop the concept of the modern geological map. One particularly interesting one is a chapter about the author's own youth and finding a perfect fossil sample.

Mr. Smith was not part of the gentry, which regularly provided the scientific advances of those days. Mostly self-taught, he was first a surveyer and later learned enough engineering to work on canals and projects like draining swamps. The gentry alternately encouraged and spurned him, which made the task more difficult.

Mr. Smith's thought process basically involved noting that the order of strata in collieries were often the same. Mr. Smith began to theorize that the strata were connected over vast sections of land. Later work with canals proved him right, where he could expose considerable lengths of land to see the connections. Close observation led him to realize the potential use of fossils for strata identification at a time when The Origin of Species had not been written and Darwin was still a Creationist.

From there, he worked mostly alone over decades to fill in the geological map with his own observations. It was an enormous task that no one would today consider doing alone! The problems of getting the first maps published are well described, as well.

The book also puts the challenge that this work made to Creationism into a helpful perspective. The illustrations include a Bible page showing the date of the Creation as 4004 B.C.

The subtle social interactions are also interesting, as Mr. Smith was considered someone to meet with for some purposes and not for others. He was snubbed during the founding of the Geological Society and the same people later plagiarized his work! Mr. Smith overspent his financial resources in pursuing the project, and fell into a ruinous debt and a disastrous marriage. The combination led him into debtor's prison just before the first map was published. He came out of prison to find his home boarded up and his possessions gone. He proceeded to live in obscurity for the next 12 years until scholarly praises for his work once again drew attention to him. In his last few years, he received honors (such as the first Wollaston Medal and a pension from the king).

I also enjoyed reading about the books that Mr. Smith read to learn about how to create maps and overlay survey results. The process in use in those days often meant that he had to carry 40 maps with him while he traveled around the countryside to check outcroppings.

Anyone who has studied geology will want to read this book. People who are fascinated by what one dedicated person can do will find the story inspirational. Those who enjoy understanding how important ideas developed will enjoy how observation led to new conclusions by Mr. Smith. Those who are interested in how evolution became accepted will enjoy how the explantion for fossils changed from God's way of showing his omnipotence to their being seen as the crystalized remnants of ancient sea creatures.

After you finish enjoying this magnificent volume, I encourage you to look around and consider where the current explanations don't match what actually seems to be going on. For example, many people have forecast problems of various sorts that have never occurred, while many actual problems have arrived unannounced. Why are these misperceptions occuring?

Help make the view of our world clearer for all!...


History of Geology in a compulsive read   July 28, 2001
A. J. Watson (Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

Having established himself with the deservedly successful 'Surgeon of Crowthorne' Simon Winchester continues in the same vein, this time in the field of geology. Pursuing what is evidently one of his favourite sujects, Mr Winchester restores to the public eye a long-lost national hero in the form of William Smith; a single-minded, dedicated amateur fossicker who suddenly realises he has the key to unravelling the mysteries of the earth's formation ... but he needs more evidence to complete his grand plan - a map of the underside of Britain.

In gathering this information, he runs foul of several high-born, high-minded charlatans and bigots who are intent on either stealing his hard-won information for themselves, or disproving his theory (which flies in the face of the Biblical Word), or both. Smith's theories are plagiarised or ridiculed, his maps blatantly copied and his reputation sullied, leaving him a broken, disillusioned man, until at what seems like the last minute, he is restored to his rightful place in the scientific community.

Lovingly written and deeply researched, this book gives you the feeling of being with Smith as he marches across the countryside, collecting specimens and obviously loving his subject, but also the feeling of frustration and impotence as he comes up againt the religious firewall of 'It's in the Bible, so it must be true'. In those days of belief in a world only 6,000 years old, Smith must have had real conviction in his theory to stand against the full indignant might of the Church and the established scientific community.

The list of other scientific 'lions' peppering the pages makes one realise what a small community the scientific world was at that time - made even smaller by excluding commoners - so William Smith's achievement of being the first recipient of the Geological Society's highest accolade was a real breakthrough.

A gem of a book, makes one wish to read more ... 5 stars ***** ... so after this, read 'The Dinosaur Hunters' by Deborah Cadbury - more of the same brilliance, bigotry and chicanery in this one, too.


A fascinating story about a little known pioneer   July 23, 2001
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Simon Winchester has found another neglected historical figure and woven a fascinating story around his life and achievements.I did not enjoy this book quite as much as "The Surgeon of Crowmarsh",but I learned something about geology in a very entertaining way.

William Smith was the son of an Oxfordshire village blacksmith. Such lowly beginnings did not prevent him from creating the first,huge geological map of England, Wales and part of Scotland. There is a reproduction of his map on the end papers of the book, opposite a modern version. Even a non-geologist like myself can see how broadly accurate Smith's observations were. That one man, walking or riding, could have discovered so much is both amazing and humbling. Luckily, he left a diary so we can follow his journeys.

I found the style of the book irritating in places. There are many, many "as we shall see" sentences, especially at the ends of chapters.Some of the modern maps could be improved. That of the Somerset Coal Canal appears to show a canal and a railway (not a branched canal) and Figure 10 shows the GWR line missing Radstock. "He managed to created a design" is presumably a word-processing error. And how does it make "good forensic sense" to have parallel canals? "Forensic" refers to legal processes.

But these are only niggles. I found the book difficult to put down and I have learned a little about geology and social history on the way.And, what a dreadful boarding school Mr. Winchester went to!