Crucibles: Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission

There's interesting material in this book, and the focus on personalities makes it a bit easier to remember who's who. Unfortunately, the writing style is affected (I generally have a high tolerance for old-fashioned writing, but it bothers me here) and it's hard to tell how much is historical fact and how much is embroidery. Also, the person-centric organization works much better for the early material, and becomes fairly unwieldy by the middle. It has the semi-inevitable focus on element discovery/synthesis of many histories of chemistry (transmutation of base metals to gold-no, elements are immutable-no, nuclear fission and fusion!) and relatively little discussion of other 20th century advances. Especially in the middle and end, it's light on the chemical/experimental details.

Not everyone likes to jump into a field with a basic textbook. Crucibles tells the story of modern chemistry and atomic theory in the form of a series of biographical vignettes with an emphasis on chemistry. It starts with the ancients and covers a lot of ground. I found it rather fascinating as a kid, but I still think it's pretty good as an introduction.

Excellent

Good book, some times too passionate, but very informative.

I recently gave this book as a gift. I have known it since its first publication, and have always felt it to be one of the best books I have ever read.