Science: Second Primer

Lancelot Hogben is a blue-eyed, tousel-haired British biologist of 42 who once occupied a chair of Social Biology at the University of London, and who has educated himself in many fields of science.

Last year Professor Hogben published Mathematics for the Million, a study of the history, purposes and methods of mathematics. It undertook to explain algebra, trigonometry, spherical geometry, logarithms, graphs, calculus. This turned out to be a best-selling piece of nonfiction.

Published in the U. S. last week was an other book by Professor Hogben, titled Science for the Citizen* subtitled “The Second of the Primers for the Age of Plenty.” Started long before Mathematics for the Million, this hulking tome runs to 1,076 close-packed pages. It surveys almost the whole field of science, from its origins onward, is built on five main pillars: Astronomy, Chemistry, Power, Biology, Behavior.

Science for the Citizen was published four months ago in England where it was a non-fiction bestseller. No doubt sales in the U. S. will be equally large. The book is a remarkably learned compendium of scientific information, and when Professor Hogben wanders into little essays on the historical and present interrelations of science and society he does so with lucidity. But it is unlikely that everyone who buys Science for the Citizen will read it through. For Professor Hogben has obviously overestimated the stamina of the lay reader, even of intelligent, fairly well educated men.

Fact is that both Mathematics for the Million and Science for the Citizen are not works of popularization at all, in the ordinary sense, but textbooks or reference books. The former is full of difficult mathematics, the latter of intricate analyses, complex charts and diagrams, formidable mathematical and chemical equations. Professor Hogben has even inserted lists of questions and problems at the ends of his chapters for those who take their learning hard.

* Knopf ($5).