Aristotle Leads the Way

Natural History, Dec, 2004 by Diana Lutz

Aristotle Leads the Way, by Joy Hakim (Smithsonian Books; $21.95)

Aristotle Leads the Way is the first in a projected series of six books by a "Virginia Beach grandmother," already famous for her ten-volume history of the United States. A teacher and a journalist, Joy Hakim was so disgusted by the way committees had managed to eliminate nearly all content from textbooks on American history that she single-handedly wrote her own series, the best-selling A History of Us.

The new series, The Story of Science, is her attempt to work the same magic for science. Defying the idea that science erases its past as it progresses, she has taken a historical approach, beginning with the first observations in Mesopotamian Sumer and spending most of the first volume in Ionia (western Turkey) and Greece with Pythagoras and Aristotle. Unlike A History of Us, which was printed as cheaply as possible, The Story of Science is chockfull of well-chosen full-color illustrations and photographs.

Aristotle is an old-fashioned book--so old-fashioned that you could say it has turned a corner and become radical. Hakim tells stories instead of presenting a series of ideas in expository prose. She picks sides and takes a stand. Scientists are the heroes of her stories, and she speaks unflinchingly about the superiority of the life of the mind. Her views are not politically correct. She stresses the importance of math to science and devotes many sidebars, complete with formulas, to famous mathematical propositions.

"If you had the idea that math is unimaginative, think again," she says.

Hakim writes with a strong, clear voice that does not defer to other sensibilities (as has become nearly obligatory in children's writing). At the same time, her prose has a hip informality never found in textbooks. "Imagine yourself in their sandals," she says. The net effect is to make the reader feel that knowledge is a conversation with interesting people. As a good--even great--teacher, Hakim knows exactly where students might stumble and is always there, making sure they don't.

Will The Story of Science do as well commercially as A History of Us? American history is taught in schools, so A History of Us was eventually adopted by at least some school districts. But I'm not aware of any school system that teaches the history of science. My daughter's science class doesn't even have a textbook; following the dictates of various organizations of scientists, the students spend all their time in the lab. Perhaps a little reading at home is just what they need.

DIANA LUTZ keeps an eye on children's literature for her daughter Emily. She is also the editor of Muse, a science magazine for children.