The Invention of Air A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America

From the author of The Ghost Mapand Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new national bestseller: the exhilarating”(Los Angeles Times) story of a founding father long forgotten.”(Newsweek) National bestselling author Steven Johnson tells the fascinating story of Joseph Priestley—scientist and theologian, protégé of Benjamin Franklin, friend of Thomas Jefferson—an eighteenth-century radical thinker who played pivotal roles in the invention of ecosystem science, the discovery of oxygen, the founding of the Unitarian Church, and the intellectual development of the United States. As he did so masterfully in The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson uses a dramatic historical story to explore themes that have long engaged him: innovation and the way new ideas emerge and spread, and the environments that foster these breakthroughs.

Steven Johnson is the founder of several influential websites, including FEED, Plastic, and, currently, outside.in. A popular lecturer, he has spoken everywhere from Google to conferences such as TED.