[PQP]⋙ PDF Free The Technologists A Novel Matthew Pearl 9781400066575 Books

The Technologists A Novel Matthew Pearl 9781400066575 Books

Download As PDF : The Technologists A Novel Matthew Pearl 9781400066575 Books

The Technologists A Novel Matthew Pearl 9781400066575 Books

I really enjoyed the setting of this book, a bit more than the convoluted plot. Because my grandfather, a chemist, graduated from MIT in 1898, the book made me realize that he must have attended classes in the Rogers building in Back Bay in Boston, rather than in the current, impressive Cambridge campus. I was aware that Harvard looked down on MIT, but this book made it clearer to me. It was interesting to see Louis Agassiz portrayed as a slightly comical villain, since his anti- evolution position has long been downplayed. Indeed, the admissions office of my college was in a building named after him.
The short story was also enlightening. Set at University of Virginia in the 1840s, it demonstrated the future culture clash between southerners and abolitionists and other northerners. It was a shock to see family names whose descendants I have known.

Good stories, especially interesting for their fairly accurate portrayal of social attitudes that have changed a great deal.


Tags : The Technologists: A Novel [Matthew Pearl] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b> The first class at M.I.T. The last hope for a city in peril.</i></b> <b>  </i></b> The acclaimed author of The Dante Club</i> reinvigorates the historical thriller. Matthew Pearl’s spellbinding new novel transports readers to tumultuous nineteenth-century Boston,Matthew Pearl,The Technologists: A Novel,Random House,1400066573,Boston (Mass.);Fiction.,College students;Massachusetts;Boston;Fiction.,College students;Massachusetts;Cambridge;Fiction.,American Historical Fiction,Boston,Cambridge,College students,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction Historical,Fiction Literary,Fiction Thrillers General,Historical - General,Historical fiction,Massachusetts,Thrillers - General

The Technologists A Novel Matthew Pearl 9781400066575 Books Reviews

While "The Last Dickens" is my favorite still in terms of showcasing his writing and genius, The Technologists comes very close. Here's his special talent "intelligent thrillers" might describe his books...the fact is when you are done reading, you really *are* smarter!

The main characters were terrific, and all the more so because they are based on real people or combinations of real people. But he also graces the pages with seemingly minor but incredibly memorable minor characters.

I am an avid Civil War enthusiast and I think this is where the book really shines...it is set in 1868 but the shadows of the war are still present. He excellently portrays both the resentment, guilt, and opportunity from the rich man's war/poor man's fight. Characters include "substitutes" paid by the rich to take the place of favored sons in the ranks. One of the most touching moments in the book though is when of the characters who didn't fight in the war relates how he watched the wounded coming off the trains. While the prisoner commandant is perhaps too-reminiscent of Henry Wirz of Andersonville infamy, Matthew Pearl's choice of Smith Factory Prison - a real POW camp in Richmond - was a stroke of genius, not only for being novel and not well-worn but also because it allowed him the plot device of the factory machinery.

The disasters are not based in fact, but this is a thriller and Pearl is granted license to invent them...it is true though that shipwrecks, train accidents, and boiler explosions were common industrial accidents in the 19th century...I only wish he would have expressed better how horrible they could be, esp. boiler explosions...the real horror seemed placed in the "glass disaster," which seemed the least credible of the maniacal plots.

I would happily give this 4 1/2 stars and the only reason I am not giving it 5 is that I think the primary place of MIT in the education of scientists and engineers in the early history of the United States, and their place in putting scientific and engineering apparatus in the hands of students (rather than dry demonstrations in lecture rooms) is a bit overstated...From my own research and writing, I think West Point (United States Military Academy) has at least least some claim to this...the thought of chemistry and physics as the "new sciences" also seems a little out of place...still, the role of MIT in American history is solid, indeed.

I highly encourage people to also read his novella "The Professor's Assassin" as it gives clues to the progressive nature of Professor Rogers so that the female student and the African American building superintendent are in his nature.

And - to close this review - I quote my favorite retort from the film "Good Will Hunting" "How Do You Like Them Apples?" It seems fitting enough because like GWH, this book often pits underdogs from MIT with Boston Brahmins and Matthew Pearl cleverly shows that Harvard has been training insufferable young men for centuries...but they get it in the end...and the beginning...and once or twice in the middle.

Well done AGAIN, Mr. Pearl! And we are left to wait for what comes next!
This is a loong book and admittedly, about 30% though I thought of tossing it - but I stayed with it and was glad I did as the pace picked up. At least 3 times I said out loud "I didn't see that coming" but you'll get no spoilers from me.

As the book starts MIT is in its infancy and it has a long road to hoe. Suspicions about science from many quarters and Harvard does not come out looking good. Then Boston is under attack and it is up to a group of students to figure out who and how and why and in secret. They get to the how fairly quickly but the who and why are surprising.

I don't know how much of the history of the start of MIT is true. but the jealousy and infighting are believable.
In his massive novel, "The Technologists," Matthew Pearl traces the history of new science using the vehicle of the beginnings of what is now the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In retrospect, I'd guess we could expect enormous self-righteous fury toward the upstart academy from neighboring Harvard as well as extant unions, scientists, and pious religious folk. To add to the new school's offenses, they also admitted scholarship boys and - heaven forfend! - a woman chemist.

To thicken the plot of this historical novel, author Pearl invents three major catastrophes to destroy the city, a chemical imbalance which causes compasses aboard ships in the harbor to falsify direction, an air-born change in the composition of glass to liquify glass windows, and a chemical in the water supply that causes factory boilers to explode.

In one way and another, these calamities, are blamed on the new "institute" and a leading scientist at Harvard heads a task force to convict and punish the wayward institute. For its contribution to the plot, a team of brilliant student "technologists" from the institute, including the young woman, form to solve the mystery behind the unnatural destructive forces, and to save the fledgling institute. The novel, of course, includes love interests among the team members and involves social class difference in the variety of resident Bostonians.

In addition to the awesome research author Pearl has done to tie together the theoretical sciences that make these mysteries and their solutions "work", thus convincing the reader and holding our interest with each of the many twists and turns of this engaging yarn. Remarkable, too, is the development of the protagonists here; each of the individuals in this novel, which is truly character-driven, is believable as victim or villain and elicits our concern for what happens next and next and next to the very end.

"The Technologists" by Matthew Pearl is a novel you won't want to miss, one that's sure to takes its place among your all-time favorites.
I really enjoyed the setting of this book, a bit more than the convoluted plot. Because my grandfather, a chemist, graduated from MIT in 1898, the book made me realize that he must have attended classes in the Rogers building in Back Bay in Boston, rather than in the current, impressive Cambridge campus. I was aware that Harvard looked down on MIT, but this book made it clearer to me. It was interesting to see Louis Agassiz portrayed as a slightly comical villain, since his anti- evolution position has long been downplayed. Indeed, the admissions office of my college was in a building named after him.
The short story was also enlightening. Set at University of Virginia in the 1840s, it demonstrated the future culture clash between southerners and abolitionists and other northerners. It was a shock to see family names whose descendants I have known.

Good stories, especially interesting for their fairly accurate portrayal of social attitudes that have changed a great deal.