Kepler's Witch

An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War, Political Intrigue

Rating - 3/5

The Bottom Line

While I would recommend this book as being a very detailed account of Kepler and his interaction with the Thirty Years war, the frustrating effort of reading this means I would limit my recommendation to only those with a strong interest in the subject matter. On the other hand, this is still one of the best biographies of Kepler in existence, and his life and achievements are an important part of the story of physics – he is, after all, one of the giants on who's shoulders Newton stood.


James A. Conner seeks to illuminate the “life and times” of Johannes Kepler. The narrative loosely revolves around his mother''s trial for witchcraft and Kepler's excommunication from the Lutheran church in the early 17th century, illustrating the religious and political climate of Reformation/Counter-reformation Europe in the lead up to and during the Thirty Years War. Conner, himself a former priest, attempts to demonstrate how Kepler's unshakable personal faith drove both his research and his personal life in this turbulent period.

Conner's research is impeccable – the text is full of translated letters to and from Kepler, entries in his journals and transcripts of the witchcraft trials – and he relates many many facts that do indeed illuminate Kepler's life and times. The descriptions of 17th century European politics and religion is full of things I didn't know about the thirty years war, and the descriptions of Kepler are likewise illuminating – demonstrating his stubborn character in vivid detail.

Kepler is one of my personal scientific heroes, based upon two events relating to his astronomical research. Firstly, he was willing to throw off the Ptolemaic dogma of the earth centered universe and embrace the Copernican model of the Earth orbiting the Sun; and secondly I admire his willingness to throw away his pet theory of the planetary orbits (related to the Platonic Solids) in the light of contradictory observations. Unfortunately, Conner's prose is often difficult to read – my two main gripes involve the very repetitive nature of his text. He often tells us the same things over and over, in order – I imagine – to stress the important events in Kepler's life. But, this simply lead to a frustrating experience for me. The other problem is related: while Conner is trying to tell the tale of Kepler's life in a linear fashion, he often goes on long excursions into the past or the future (relative to the point in Kepler's life Conner is up to), where he relates events out of temporal order, further confusing the narrative. While I would recommend this book as being a very detailed account of Kepler and his interaction with the Thirty Years war, the frustrating effort of reading this means I would limit my recommendation to only those with a strong interest in the subject matter. On the other hand, this is still one of the best biographies of Kepler in existence, and his life and achievements are an important part of the story of physics – he is, after all, one of the giants on who's shoulders Newton stood.

Pros	Detailed account of Kepler's life and times Illuminates Kepler's character
Cons	Confusing narrative. Repetitive, jumps back and forth in time. Less detail on Kepler's physics than you might want.

Description

• Impeccable research - translated letters and journals illuminate Kepler's life.
• Very repetitive text, to stress important events - but frustrating to read.
• Confusing excursions into the relative past and future makes prose more confusing.
• Captures the religious/political atmosphere of the era.