Fritz Haber and the twentieth century

"A German Jewish scientist, his invention with his brother-in-law Carl Bosch of the Haber-Bosch process, to make ammonia fertiliser, enriched the whole world. Estimates of the number of people who are alive today on account of his invention are in the hundreds of millions, and even in the billions. What a great benevolence to mankind, you might say, what a saviour of lives! But the same man was also responsible for the invention of chemical warfare. He not only invented chlorine gas but personally supervised its use against English and French troops at Ypres in 1915. His creation of nitric acid for explosives and his ammonia fertilisers were said by Max Planck to have prolonged the First World War by a full year. His life story is thus one of the most conflicted you could ever possibly come across. He hoped by his contributions to the war effort to prove himself a German patriot despite being a Jew; but his wife, who was also a scientist, was so distressed by his work on chemical warfare (not to mention his disregard of her career) that she shot herself on the day he was promoted to the rank of captain. Worse was to follow. After the First World War, Haber led the team that invented the cyanide-based insecticide Zyklon B. It was this chemical that was used to murder vast numbers of Jews in the Nazi death camps during the Second World War. It seems fitting that as we draw to the end of this chapter, we face a final war-related irony: that the man who saved more lives than anyone else was also responsible for millions of deaths."

Ian Mortimer in Centuries of Change:
Which Century Saw the Most Change and Why it Matters to Us (2014)
[review here]

Centuries of Change - Which Century Saw the Most Change and Why it Matters to Us by Ian Mortimer

Com este livro Ian Mortimer propõe-se a analisar os últimos dez séculos ao nível das mudanças que se observaram na civilização humana - centrado na sociedade ocidental - num exercício que pretende determinar qual foi o século que viu maior mudança.

O autor começa por explicar a sua abordagem, justificando a opção de se dedicar ao ocidente, e depois faz uma descrição de cada século tendo em conta as mudanças e os agentes de mudança a cada momento. Este caminho acaba por ser uma óptima forma de recordar a nossa história o caminho que a nossa civilização percorreu até se tornar no que é agora.

No final, o autor olha para trás e recorre a alguns critérios para poder determinar as principais mudanças e agentes e consequentemente, os séculos em que maiores mudanças ocorreram, até à decisão final.

Se é verdade que nem sempre concordei com a eleição do autor - o que obviamente se relaciona com os valores individuais e perspectivas a priori, como o próprio refere - é igualmente verdade que o autor soube sempre justificar as suas opções de forma lógica e credível.

O interesse deste livro, mais do que o cálculo ou a comparação para determinar o vencedor, é o que lembra o próprio subtítulo - porquê que isso é importante? 

"Breaking down the overarching concept of change into smaller facets has allowed us to glimpse the dynamics of long-term human development. We can see that not all change is technological: it includes language, individualism, philosophy, religious division, secularisation, geographical discovery, social reform and the weather."

Mortimer termina com uma análise muito relevante da nossa evolução civilizacional e uma previsão do que poderá ser o nosso caminho no futuro a médio-longo prazo. 

O século vencedor? É um pormenor.

Tive acesso gratuito a este livro através do NetGalley.

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With this work, Ian Mortimer intends to a analyse the last ten centuries and determine the changes in human civilization - focused on the so called western world - with the purpose of finding the one which saw the biggest changes.

The author starts by explaining his approach, justifying the option for the western civilization, and then, chapter by chapter, describes each century taking into account the changes and the agents of those changes at the time. This method ends up becoming a good way to remember history and the pathway our civilization has treaded before it became what it is today.
After this, the author looks back and uses some criteria to be able to determine the main changes and agents and the centuries that saw them happen.
I didn't always agree with the author's choices or opinions - something that is obviously related to individual values and perspectives, as the author himself refers - but he does explain his options showing sound logic and justification.

The main relevance of the book, in my opinion, much more than finding out in which century we changed the most, is what the subtitle asks - "Why it Matters to Us?"

"Breaking down the overarching concept of change into smaller facets has allowed us to glimpse the dynamics of long-term human development. We can see that not all change is technological: it includes language, individualism, philosophy, religious division, secularisation, geographical discovery, social reform and the weather."

Mortimer ends with a very relevant analysis of our civilization's evolution and a prediction of what our future can hold.

The winning century? It is but a detail.


I had free access to this book through NetGalley.