Lisa Jardine is a British historian of the early modern period. She is professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western Europe and its first colonies, between the Middle Ages and modern society. ... Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) (until recently Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London and still called that in its charter and occasionally still abbreviated to QMW) is the fourth largest College of the University of London. ...
She is the eldest child of the late Jacob Bronowski. Jacob Bronowski Jacob Bronowski (January 18, 1908, Lódź, Poland - August 22, 1974, East Hampton, New York, USA) was the presenter of the BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man which inspired Carl Sagans Cosmos series. ...
Jardine also has to deal with this in her biography of the man, and it turns out to be quite a hurdle.
Jardine suggests a focus with her subtitle -- Hooke as The Man Who Measured London -- but the book admits there was far more to him, and gives equal space to his important work with and at the Royal Society, and many of his other endeavours.
Jardine gives a decent overview of some of these projects, and the illustrations bring much of this to life, but it's hard material to simply survey and one wishes for a more detailed and specific account of it.
Jardine openly acknowledges that throughout her childhood she loved her father almost to the exclusion of her mother, which helps to explain how - from the age of five - she was identified as a maths prodigy.
Jardine has been virtually ever-present as a cultural commentator over the past two decades and has been a judge on all the major book prizes - most notably in 2002 when she was chair of the Booker jury.
The notion that Jardine is essentially frivolous has strayed into other areas of her media work, but she says she's resigned, even happy, with that, because in the sphere that really matters to her - the academic - she's always been acknowledged as a serious player.
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