This is a great book! It is a fast book for middle school kids and a slow book for elementary kids. It is interesting, well written, well illustrated, and covers a good amount of material. I would recommend this to anybody but it is especially great for homeschoolers

As a homeschooling parent, I am very pleased with this book and the vast amount of information it contains about our world. Most interesting is the authors approach. Not only does he talk about the various discoveries of the past centuries, but he also takes you back to the person and the circumstances that provided the opportunity for the discovery to be made. My children and I have all been made educationally richer thanks to this work.

I will purchase the other books (there are to be three of them total) as soon as I am able to locate them. The quality of information is excellent and I expect the other books to meet the quality and depth as this one has done. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing the "who, when, and how" various discoveries were made.

100 Scientists Who Shaped World History showcases great men and women of science who significantly contributed to our understanding of the physical world around us. These biographies are designed so that the scientific ideas presented in them are totally accessible for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in science and science history. All fields of science and scientific inquiry are represented. Highly recommended for school and community library collections, 100 Scientists Who Shaped World History is enhanced with more than 100 illustrates, locator maps, a fun trivia quiz, timeline, index, and suggested projects.

An excellent overview of the history of medicine that integrates history, medicine and biography. Bravo! to John Hudson Tiner for not compromising. Suitable for young and old alike.

This is the only science book that I have ever picked up and just read straight through! I have taken college chemistry and other science courses, as well as having taught jr. high and high school general science and biology--and I have learned things from this book that I had never known before. Mr. Tiner very gently, in a narrative style, begins with elements which were apparent to ancient man--iron, copper, gold, silver--and describes their properties, history, and uses. He then progresses through the periodic chart introducing the elements, and even the sources of their names. The chapters are brief and interesting, and by the end of the chapters, you have been introduced to the chemical and physical properties of the elements, as well as to the scientist or scientists who discovered them. I plan to use this book as the introduction to each chapter in my children's high school chemistry course. It will make the course much more interesting, as well as to help them see the relevence of chemistry to their own lives. Thank you Mr. Tiner!!! (By the way, this book does not attempt to be a stand-alone, high school chemistry course. It would be excellent for the introduction to chemistry part of a high school level general science course, though.)

John Hudson Tiner dones a fine job of writing this easy reading book of Kepler's life. I cannot comment on how well he makes the subject matter easy to understand for the intended audience, since I am not experienced in that area, but I can tell it is a great book for high school and older -- a book written for young people that adults can read without feeling like it is written beneath them. One great feature of this book, and other books by Tiner in this series, is the fact that he explains scientific facts in such a way that those not familiar with them can gain an understanding of some of the contributions of this man to astronomy. Pictures, some from Kepler's works, throughout the book make the book even more valuable.

Any biography on Kepler is not true to the man if his faith and science are separated. Raised in a less than ideal family situation, Kepler lived in incredible times so far as the fighting over religious beliefs is concerned. Though he held firmly to and held dearly his own faith and gave up much because of it, he did not wish to become involved in the fighting over it. He also freely acknowledged that God gained glory from whatever scientific study he did.

Kepler's contribution to astonomy was immense. As an example, he was provided with much needed observational data from Tycho that allowed him to determine the orbital path of Mars (around the Sun). This opened the door to determine the orbital path of other heavenly bodies as well. At one point he was motivated to discover the truth about the heavenly bodies to help dispel the superstition that caused his own mother to be tried inappropriately as a witch.

This book provides a good starting point for learning about the life of Kepler. Such reading is wholesome and inspiring and good for teaching excellent values in life. To continue my study of Kepler, I am presently reading the book on him titled Kepler by Max Casper, Dover pub., 1993, a book clearly written for adults which includes much more detail. Tiner's book was a good preliminary for this latter book.

Overall a good book but made me question historical accuracies. The book says that scicence oppressed certain scientific discoveries which I thought were oppressed by certain established religions of history. Good book and worth a read, especially if you like science history.

I had to read this for schoool last year, and I couldn't put it down!! The history of a lot of stuff is in here, and its worth every cent you pay for it. Highly Reccomended!!

I teach third graders who read at a 5th-9th grade level. The first problem with this book is that, on the back, in huge, yellow letters, is, "Learn more about your Christain heros! Read what traditional educators try to keep from you!" Not a good thing to send home. This book was much too difficult for them, not just because of the unnecessarily thick language. It is very poorly written. The prose is wordy and full of characters who are only mentioned once and then forgotten. The children claimed to like and understand this book, but their retention and actual understanding was nil.

... Given the older audience, I found this book to be well written and enjoyable for adults as well. A final chapter ends with a summary of the accomplishments of this man and what that means to our society today. It has nice illustrations, and includes an index.

Mr. Tiner combines an encouraging and inspirational story with layman's explanations for the experiments Mr. Morse conducted, which is his writing style for other books he has written for this series as well. In this way one comes away not only with the kind of story that encourages one to persevere, but also with a greater understanding of how the telegraph works if one did not already know.

Beginning as an extremely talented artist, Morse struggles to earn enough money to afford a house and be able to stay home with his family. He gains admiration, but very little money until he finally works on a highly profitable project. Unfortunately, his wife becomes ill and dies while he is away, and this information takes days to reach him.

His sorrow over his wife's death, and having earlier seen a war begin because communication was delayed, cause him to remember what he has learned about electricity. Then only a novelty in science, he designs a way to turn it into instant communication. For 12 years he works on the design and also seeks funding for the project, only to meet with either ridicule or admiration but no funding. At one point he nearly starves to death. Finally the government agrees to fund the project, and the rest, as they say, is history. The guiding force which helped keep him through these trials was his faith in God and the encouragement he drew from the Bible.

This is a wonderful book! I would make it, and the other biographies by John Hudson Tiner, required reading for young people -- and highly recommended for adults, too.

We memorize cold facts in school like "Morse invented the telegraph" but rarely learn anything about the human drama behind the facts. Here is a famous American who nearly starved himself trying to get his idea off the ground, an idea he KNEW was revolutionary, that none of the "experts" one would support! It's a story of perseverance and courage that eventually paid off and changed the world.

This book is immensely better fare for young people than the mindless drivel on TV and video games. As far as it having a Christian flavor, so what? It's true. Morse is one of many Christians who changed the world--Newton, Kepler, Pasteur, and many others. Does that aspect make the story politically incorrect? Should historians neglect the driving force behind a man's work? Get real, teachers, and tell your students more about Morse and less about Madonna. There are some excellent role models in American history and this is one of them.

John Hudson Tiner makes the character come alive and captures the misery of rejection and the triumph of vindication. It is EASY reading for any student not held captive by teachers that don't teach them how to read. There's nothing like true stories of real people (good-bye, Harry Potter), to inspire, motivate and stimulate young people to become the achievers of tomorrow. Read this and all the others in the Sowers Series, as well Tiner's other excellent books. You'll not only be inspired, you will learn a great deal of amazing history the textbooks never told you.

This book serves up a bowdlerized version of Sir Isaac Newton that has been carefully crafted to make him look like a modern Evangelical Fundamentalist. It makes good Sunday-school reading, perhaps, but it doesn't make for accurate biography.

Sir Isaac Newton was indeed a committed Christian and an almost obsessed Biblical scholar, as well as a towering mathematical genius. However, his years of scholarship ultimately led him to reject the doctrine of the Trinity and adopt a system of Christian belief that was closer to Arianism than to orthodox Christianity. See the essays collected in John Fauvel's <> for more information on this view of Newton and the evidence for it in his personal notebooks. See also Dr. Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs' careful study <> to understand how important the thirty years Newton spent investigating the claims of alchemy were in the development of his mature scientific philosophy.

This book should be placed in the adult section at church in addition to the children's section. These days new books are coming out claiming Newton to have been a deist and to have dabbled in alchemy, while his Christianity has been completely ignored. This book blows the covers off of those myths. Newton is shown to have been a dedicated Christian believer as well as a dedicated scientist. Many quotes from his one million word commentaries on the Bible are mentioned. His relationships with other important Christian scholars of the day are explored, and his true genius are revealed. The book will even bring a tear to your eye. Highly recommended.