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Knowledge Web
In "The Knowledge Web," James Burke, the bestselling author and host of television's "Connections" series, takes us on a fascinating tour through the interlocking threads of knowledge running through Western history. Displaying mesmerizing flights of fancy, he shows how seemingly unrelated ideas and innovations bounce off one another, spinning a vast, interactive web on which everything is connected to everything "Carmen" leads to the theory of relativity, champagne bottling links to wallpaper design, Joan of Arc connects through vaudeville to Buffalo Bill. Illustrating his open, connective theme in the form of a journey across the web, Burke breaks down complex concepts, offering information in a manner accessible to anybody -- high school graduates and Ph.D. holders alike. The journey touches more than one hundred interlinked points in the history of knowledge, ultimately ending where it began. Gateways, set at various points in the narrative, allow readers to jump through literary hyperspace to other different but related concepts throughout the book. At once amusing and instructing, "The Knowledge Web" heightens our awareness of our interdependence -- with one another and with the past. Taking Burke's webbed approach to knowledge is one way that we can manage our information overload as we approach the ever-more-complex world that awaits us in the twenty-first century. Only by understanding the interrelated nature of the modern world can we hope to identify complex patterns of change and direct the process of innovation to the common good.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
James Burke
22 books273 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
James Burke is a Northern Irish science historian, author and television producer best known for his documentary television series called Connections, focusing on the history of science and technology leavened with a sense of humour.
James Burke is a Northern Irish science historian, author and television producer best known for his documentary television series called Connections, focusing on the history of science and technology leavened with a sense of humour.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 25, 2021
Amazon review
Interesting, but doesn't go any where
Others have already pointed out the historical inaccuracies of this book. I found that, although well written, it doesn't sustain my interest. As someone else pointed out, it seems to be connections for the sake of connections, which, unlike the first book in the series, don't seem to lead anywhere.
In Burke's first book he tells how a series of connected discoveries led to a modern product like the television. That book had an end result, this one doesn't.
I also found myself wondering what happened to some people or discoveries after Burke had finished with them.
Finally, I started making my own connections. Take Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show - that employed Annie Oakley a sharp shooter who probably used Winchester rifles. From there you could go on to Samuel Colt whose guns were made using interchangeable parts, an idea adopted by Henry Ford, the only capitalist that Hitler admired... you get the idea.
Gwyn
---
Misleading Title, Blurb, Introduction, Etc.
This book was a sorry disappointment. I will preface my further remarks by saying that I am a huge fan of Mr. Burke's television productions, and (ironically) I actually enjoyed the book a great deal, but for mostly all the wrong reasons.
The fact is that the book does not deal with what is alluded to by the title, the jacket copy, or the author's introduction. Unfortunately, those were the only elements that I scanned when looking over the book in the store.
The marketing blurb on the cover says "From electronic agents to Stonehenge and back...". Well, there was a very small bit about electronic agents and believe it or not, Stonehenge wasn't mentioned once throughout the entire book. Mr. Burke was not well served here by his market driven editors.
The only reason I still enjoyed the book is that I love both history and technology, and that's the terrain through which this addled account rambles. Regrettably, this book was more like an extended outpouring of jumbled, loosely 'connected' trivia from a hyper-loquacious Alzheimer's patient, than anything truly salient or purposeful.
There was absolutely no discernible point to the narrative.
The author's attempt to put the work into some kind of prosaic hyperlink format was a bit embarrassing as well.
Lastly, the book ended abruptly and arbitrarily, almost as if Mr. Burke's nurse had come in and said "That's all for today. It's time for Mr. Burke's evening feeding. Maybe you can come back tomorrow."
I hope not.
Interesting, but doesn't go any where
Others have already pointed out the historical inaccuracies of this book. I found that, although well written, it doesn't sustain my interest. As someone else pointed out, it seems to be connections for the sake of connections, which, unlike the first book in the series, don't seem to lead anywhere.
In Burke's first book he tells how a series of connected discoveries led to a modern product like the television. That book had an end result, this one doesn't.
I also found myself wondering what happened to some people or discoveries after Burke had finished with them.
Finally, I started making my own connections. Take Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show - that employed Annie Oakley a sharp shooter who probably used Winchester rifles. From there you could go on to Samuel Colt whose guns were made using interchangeable parts, an idea adopted by Henry Ford, the only capitalist that Hitler admired... you get the idea.
Gwyn
---
Misleading Title, Blurb, Introduction, Etc.
This book was a sorry disappointment. I will preface my further remarks by saying that I am a huge fan of Mr. Burke's television productions, and (ironically) I actually enjoyed the book a great deal, but for mostly all the wrong reasons.
The fact is that the book does not deal with what is alluded to by the title, the jacket copy, or the author's introduction. Unfortunately, those were the only elements that I scanned when looking over the book in the store.
The marketing blurb on the cover says "From electronic agents to Stonehenge and back...". Well, there was a very small bit about electronic agents and believe it or not, Stonehenge wasn't mentioned once throughout the entire book. Mr. Burke was not well served here by his market driven editors.
The only reason I still enjoyed the book is that I love both history and technology, and that's the terrain through which this addled account rambles. Regrettably, this book was more like an extended outpouring of jumbled, loosely 'connected' trivia from a hyper-loquacious Alzheimer's patient, than anything truly salient or purposeful.
There was absolutely no discernible point to the narrative.
The author's attempt to put the work into some kind of prosaic hyperlink format was a bit embarrassing as well.
Lastly, the book ended abruptly and arbitrarily, almost as if Mr. Burke's nurse had come in and said "That's all for today. It's time for Mr. Burke's evening feeding. Maybe you can come back tomorrow."
I hope not.
May 27, 2016
Burke's loose adaptation of the Connections3 television series is burdened with an attempt at paper-based hypertext, which for me doesn't particularly work. What does work, as usual with Burke's efforts at illuminating the history of science, is the fantastic degree to which incidents from all over the world and efforts of various scientists, artists, and other players through history are interconnected. It might help to be watching the series at the same time, as the book sometimes careens from one event to the next. But overall, this is a fascinating and readable work.
Full review here.
Full review here.
August 30, 2007
I love James Burke's work generally (the BBC show connections especially) but this jumps around a bit much even for him. I think it's a prep for his web-based project (which is designed to jump).
Lots of the social scandals behind different historical events and discoveries- they often seem to fuel things. As with all James Burke- mad connections and chains of events that got us where we are now.
Lots of the social scandals behind different historical events and discoveries- they often seem to fuel things. As with all James Burke- mad connections and chains of events that got us where we are now.
February 6, 2020
I normally really like James Burke’s writing style. This book, however, was written in the “choose your own adventure “ style. The information is fine but the layout and connection between event seems a little thin. Maybe I should have read it in the nonlinear fashion but all that jumping around didn’t appeal to me.
December 19, 2017
I love James Burke as a TV host but this book fell flat. I couldn’t make it past chapter 5 despite giving it many goes over half a year. The web he weaves is to spastic to hold interest. The Connections TV show traced ideas in a much more compelling manner but the spirt didn’t carry over here
January 8, 2026
When I was a child, there was a genre of books where you could make decisions and go to those pages and continue your adventure. While it's a good idea for fiction, I don't think it works for nonfiction.
The Knowledge Web is a book by James Burke. He was the host and writer for a television series.
Burke explores our history of knowledge, makes unusual connections, and points out coincidences. He adds an option where you can follow these threads and find different paths through the web he weaves.
I found this format confusing. It felt too jumpy and disconnected. I didn't enjoy the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
The Knowledge Web is a book by James Burke. He was the host and writer for a television series.
Burke explores our history of knowledge, makes unusual connections, and points out coincidences. He adds an option where you can follow these threads and find different paths through the web he weaves.
I found this format confusing. It felt too jumpy and disconnected. I didn't enjoy the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
August 13, 2025
Just a fascinating author - another one of his books: fast-paced, loads of details and interrelated connections/stories spinning around science, travel, historical anomalies, music, the arts, physics, clock-making, shipbuilding, gardening, horticulture. philosophy, religion, nationalism, royalty, warfare, political intrigue, sociology, etc.
I find these easy to read, because there is so much information, it just speeds by toward a new connection.
I find these easy to read, because there is so much information, it just speeds by toward a new connection.
Read
June 15, 2021The basis for the TV show "Conections 3." This book ends where it begins, and has several crossreferences that he calls "Gateways," whenever a certain subject comes up in more than one chapter.
October 16, 2016
The Kindle version is marred by very frequent errors. It's clear the ebook was created by scanning a printed copy, and then not proofread. Superscripting is lost, and there are frequent character substitution errors, including the sort that should have been caught by the most cursory pass through a spellchecker. ("Un1il", "0pen", etc.)
What's even worse, is that the printed book had a kind of hyperlinking internally. There were footnotes with the page number of related topics, so if you read about, say, James Watt in chapter 2 and wanted to find out more, you could flip to the appropriate pages. If this ebook was properly formatted, they'd be upgraded to real hyperlinks- click the link, and the book goes to the new page correctly. But instead, they were scanned as end notes- that is, at the end of every chapter in the ebook is a series of useless numbers, that were originally the footnotes. The scan turned them into garbage.
This book is late-career James Burke. For the ebook version, it's an outright waste of the reader's time.
What's even worse, is that the printed book had a kind of hyperlinking internally. There were footnotes with the page number of related topics, so if you read about, say, James Watt in chapter 2 and wanted to find out more, you could flip to the appropriate pages. If this ebook was properly formatted, they'd be upgraded to real hyperlinks- click the link, and the book goes to the new page correctly. But instead, they were scanned as end notes- that is, at the end of every chapter in the ebook is a series of useless numbers, that were originally the footnotes. The scan turned them into garbage.
This book is late-career James Burke. For the ebook version, it's an outright waste of the reader's time.
March 2, 2020
The Knowledge Web aspires to be a "journey through knowledge," but it's really more like a whimsical dance. Burke's style is to draw connections between inventions to demonstrate how people and events influenced each other. However, some of the connections he chose for The Knowledge Web are very tenuous, six-degrees-of-separation coincidences, or "these two people were living at the same time" relationships. The result is an almost random collection of anecdotes not united thematically or historically. Because he doesn't cover events, inventions, or people in depth, it's difficult to absorb any of it before he moves on to the next topic.
August 22, 2015
Think I'm going to have to work through this again with a notebook handy...
This book is composed of some amazing chains of scientific, technological and cultural ideas, weird facts, and overlapping moments in history. The title is fairly descriptive in that respect. I appreciated all the trivia and forgotten-lore type of information included, but as a reading experience, you basically have to meet a new 'character' every paragraph or two. Great in small pieces, it's somewhat harder to digest in larger bites.
This book is composed of some amazing chains of scientific, technological and cultural ideas, weird facts, and overlapping moments in history. The title is fairly descriptive in that respect. I appreciated all the trivia and forgotten-lore type of information included, but as a reading experience, you basically have to meet a new 'character' every paragraph or two. Great in small pieces, it's somewhat harder to digest in larger bites.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews