The Man Who Found Time : James Hutton and the Discovery of Earth's Antiquity

In this book, Jack Repcheck tells the story of this Scottish gentleman farmer and how his simple observations on his small tract of land led him to a theory that was in direct confrontation with the Bible and that also provided the scientific proof that would spark Darwin's theory of evolution. It is also the story of Scotland and the Scottish Enlightenment, which brought together some of the greatest thinkers of the age, from David Hume and Adam Smith to James Watt and Erasmus Darwin. Finally, it is a story about the power of the written word. Repcheck argues that Hutton's work was lost to history because he could not describe his findings in graceful and readable prose. (Unlike Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", Hutton's one and only book was impenetrable.) A narrative about a little-known man and the science he founded, this text is also a parable about the power of books to shape the history of ideas.