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The Man Who Made Lists Joshua Kendall 9780399154621 Books

Download As PDF : The Man Who Made Lists Joshua Kendall 9780399154621 Books

The Man Who Made Lists Joshua Kendall 9780399154621 Books

Roget was a part of the restless energy and inventiveness that characterised the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Great Britain - the early Industrial Revolution. But that revolution was not just about technology. New ideas and the observation and classification of nature and knowledge were also major preoccupations of a wide range of notable men and women, many of whom knew and gained inspiration from each other.

Kendall does a good job of bringing that era to life and placing Roget's life and achievements into its proper context. Like many of his contemporaries, Roget was familiar with a wide range of scientific areas - medicine, optics, botany, zoology and mathematics to name a few of his interests.

The cover blurb says Roget invented the slide rule, but that is an exaggeration. Kendall makes clear in the text that Roget actually invented the log log scale that enabled users to calculate powers and extract roots on the slide rule.

Roget's observations on optics played a role in early animation of movement via such devices as the zoetrope a distant forerunner of modern moving pictures.

Roget's family had a tragic history of mental illness down the generations, and Kendall makes much of this to explain Roget's obsessive list-making and other behavioural traits. Unfortunately, he over-interprets scanty evidence in making psychological claims about Roget such as, "as long as his daily life had a purpose, he could keep feelings of anxiety at bay," and that he was a man who came to rely on words as companions.

Kendall seems to have started out with the view that the man who wrote the Thesaurus must have had certain psychological traits and defects, and he interprets the patchy evidence to support this idea. Kendall may or may not be right, but the Roget described in this book was probably not the real Roget.

A small irritation in the later chapters is Kendall's reconstruction of actual dialogue between Roget and other individuals. It seems silly to use such a narrative device, because it adds nothing to the story and is actually quite jarring to the reader.

But these criticisms do not detract greatly from the factual content of this fascinating and worthwhile book about a multi-talented man.


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The Man Who Made Lists Joshua Kendall 9780399154621 Books Reviews

Roget was involved with much more than his Thesaurus. His work in electromagnetics is almost absent from this biography.
I was disappointed in this book because I wanted to know all about the creation of Roget's Thesaurus and the author spends less than 10 pages (actually more like 5 pages) on that topic. In fact, by the time the book gets around to this topic, it is very close to the end.
This book kept me engrossed till the finish. A fascinating insight into Roget and his misfortune-plagued family and how it led him to his famous thesaurus. I was quite amazed at the development of his career and what he did and achieved. Strongly recommended read.
Certainly the most useful reference ever conceived.
initially borrowed book from library. the read was so engrossing that i determined to have the book at home permanently, so that i could reread it repeatedly.hence the purchase of this used copy. Roget was an outstanding man, both in medicine, science,and of course as the creator of Roget's Thesaurus ! the book is worth it just for the cross-references it gives, as his life interacts with so many leading figures of the 18th and 19th century. i have a range of specialist libraries, but i treasure this book ! all praise to Joshua Kendall, the author ! cheersRoget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
I enjoyed this book, it felt like a historical romp with fascinating people. I picked up the book because I was intrigued with the underlying story about how a doctor with an apparent obsessive compulsive disorder and crazy family would end up being best known for creating a book that increased my vocabulary and helped me polish many college papers. Roget lived in an amazing time when "poets were scientists," and he defines the Renaissance man, which is something that I had not appreciated prior to reading this book. The book does take many tangents that are usually entertaining as they involve many other famous figures who happen to be friends w/ Roget. (If Roget had written the book himself he would surely have been accused of name dropping). In general, I learned something about this logophile, why he created the Thesaurus and how he thrived in a remarkable era.
I had high hopes for this book, whose audiobook version I am struggling through for the second time. Listening to it is like eating liver; you stick with it because you recognize the merits of doing so, but the experience is not pleasurable and you want it to end as soon as possible.

Part of the problem is the book's reader, Stephen Hoye. His reading is pretentious. That put me off by the end of the first sentence and it was a constant annoyance throughout the book. A more down-to-earth reader, like the readers for Stephen Ambrose's and David McCullough's books, would have helped.

Having enjoyed Simon Winchester's two books about the making of the OED, namely, The Meaning of Everything (2003) and The Professor and the Madman (1998), I expected that this book on Peter Mark Roget and the making of the thesaurus would be equally stimulating and entertaining, especially since the author, Joshua Kendall, presumably would have previously read Winchester's two books and would have picked up some literary pointers from them. Regrettably, no such literary inspiration seems to have occurred.
Roget was a part of the restless energy and inventiveness that characterised the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Great Britain - the early Industrial Revolution. But that revolution was not just about technology. New ideas and the observation and classification of nature and knowledge were also major preoccupations of a wide range of notable men and women, many of whom knew and gained inspiration from each other.

Kendall does a good job of bringing that era to life and placing Roget's life and achievements into its proper context. Like many of his contemporaries, Roget was familiar with a wide range of scientific areas - medicine, optics, botany, zoology and mathematics to name a few of his interests.

The cover blurb says Roget invented the slide rule, but that is an exaggeration. Kendall makes clear in the text that Roget actually invented the log log scale that enabled users to calculate powers and extract roots on the slide rule.

Roget's observations on optics played a role in early animation of movement via such devices as the zoetrope a distant forerunner of modern moving pictures.

Roget's family had a tragic history of mental illness down the generations, and Kendall makes much of this to explain Roget's obsessive list-making and other behavioural traits. Unfortunately, he over-interprets scanty evidence in making psychological claims about Roget such as, "as long as his daily life had a purpose, he could keep feelings of anxiety at bay," and that he was a man who came to rely on words as companions.

Kendall seems to have started out with the view that the man who wrote the Thesaurus must have had certain psychological traits and defects, and he interprets the patchy evidence to support this idea. Kendall may or may not be right, but the Roget described in this book was probably not the real Roget.

A small irritation in the later chapters is Kendall's reconstruction of actual dialogue between Roget and other individuals. It seems silly to use such a narrative device, because it adds nothing to the story and is actually quite jarring to the reader.

But these criticisms do not detract greatly from the factual content of this fascinating and worthwhile book about a multi-talented man.