The Breath of the Gods - by Simon Winchester (Hardcover)

About the Book

A "portrait across time of that unseen force--unseen but not unfelt--that respects no national borders and no vessel or structure in its path. Wind, the movement of the air, is seen by so many as a heavenly creation and generally a thing of essential goodness. But when it flexes its invisible muscles, all should take care and be very afraid"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester returns with a thought-provoking history of the wind, written in his edifying and entertaining style.

What is going on with our atmosphere? The headlines are filled with news of devastating hurricanes, murderous tornadoes, and cataclysmic fires affecting large swaths of America. Gale force advisories are issued on a regular basis by the National Weather Service.

In 2022, a report was released by atmospheric scientists at the University of Northern Illinois, warning that winds--the force at the center of all these dangerous natural events--are expected to steadily increase in the years ahead, strengthening in power, speed, and frequency.

While this prediction worried the insurance industry, governmental leaders, scientists, and conscientious citizens, one particular segment of society received it with unbridled enthusiasm. To the energy industry, rising wind strength and speeds as an unalloyed boon for humankind--a vital source of clean and "safe" power.

Between these two poles--wind as a malevolent force, and wind as savior of our planet--lies a world of fascination, history, literature, science, poetry, and engineering which Simon Winchester explores with the curiosity and vigor that are the hallmarks of his bestselling works. In The Breath of the Gods, he explains how wind plays a part in our everyday lives, from airplane or car travel to the "natural disasters" that are becoming more frequent and regular.

The Breath of the Gods is an urgently-needed portrait across time of that unseen force--unseen but not unfelt--that respects no national borders and no vessel or structure in its path. Wind, the movement of the air, is seen by so many as a heavenly creation and generally a thing of essential goodness. But when it flexes its invisible muscles, all should take care and be very afraid.

Review Quotes

"As Simon Winchester writes in his delightful new book, The Breath of the Gods, these invisible currents of air shape our lives in myriad ways . . . . a thoroughly enjoyable book, brimming over with historical nuggets and contemplations about the future." - New York Times
"Epic . . . . Winchester brings depth to the history of the wind . . . . A splendidly written account of an unseeable force." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Beguiling . . . . [Winchester] conveys all this lore in prose that's colorful and evocative . . . . Readers will savor this." - Publishers Weekly
"Big nonfiction books that explore the whole world through the lens of a single object or concept have been popular for a few decades now (we've had salt, soil, trees). But few are as stirring as Simon Winchester's latest, The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind. Human beings have always taken note of the wind--never more so than when a tornado threatens--and in Winchester's exquisitely clear prose, he leads us through that long history and into a new understanding that a changing climate will bring more frequent dangers from the sky." - Boston Globe
"Even when it's a familiar topic, Winchester finds fascinating ways in . . . Winchester also is a great synthesizer of material . . . . my copy of Breath is packed with my notes on the extraordinary people and details that Winchester unearths . . . . Winchester's writing is a breath of fresh air." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Winchester, a prolific and best-selling popular historian, turns his attention to that most powerful of forces: the wind. With his signature entertaining erudition, he explores a subject that has quite literally powered the human world since our inception." - New York Times

"Winchester . . . provides an immensely informative and engaging biography of wind, as a meteorological, literary and philosophical phenomenon, a factor in milling grain to make flour, travel by land, sea and air, the battle of Salamis and defeat of the Spanish Armada, and climate change in the Global North and South."

- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Winchester, a former reporter, can find a good story just about anywhere he looks, and the range of his gaze is simply enormous. From warzones and Wonderland, to precision engineers, natural disasters and not one but two books about the Oxford English Dictionary, the venerable storyteller has covered a lot of ground in the past half-century. This time, the noted subtitle enthusiast is taking to the air, literally, with a study of the phenomenon that shapes Earth's climate and influences human history."

- NPR.org
"The Breath of the Gods is as engaging as popular history can be . . . . To cover such a vast topic, Winchester unfurls a wide canvas, but he handles it all so nimbly. If you've ever watched a sailboat steadily zigzag its way upwind, you've surely admired the patience and care of a master at work, and so it is with The Breath of the Gods." - BookPage
"We love a historian with divergent interests. Simon Winchester's oeuvre contains cultural histories of the Oxford English Dictionary, land ownership, the Pacific Ocean, transportation technology, cartography, precision engineering and much more. He's a Pied Piper who draws readers in to seemingly remote topics and soon has them eagerly engaging with the material. The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind will investigate the currents of air that threaten our lives and environments, but also provide a path for clean energy." - BookPage, "Most Anticipated"
"A book about transmitting knowledge by someone who has made his name by doing just that in the most erudite and entertaining way possible. . . . A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter. . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in history . . . as a promulgator of knowledge of every variety, perhaps the last of the famous explorers who crisscrossed the now-vanished British Empire and reported what they found to an astonished world." - New York Times on Knowing What We Know
"This genial and much admired author . . . might be appropriately dubbed the One-Man Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge of our own era. Whatever his subject, Winchester leavens deep research and the crisp factual writing of a reporter . . . with an abundance of curious anecdotes, footnotes and digressions. His prose is always clear, but it is also invigorated with pleasingly elegant diction. . . . He is a pleasure to read, or even to listen to, as devotees of his audiobooks can testify. . . . Informative and entertaining throughout." - Michael Dirda, Washington Post, on Knowing What We Know
"Winchester has written about information systems before, as in his 1998 book The Professor and the Madman, about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. In his robust new compendium, the author examines those systems in far grander scope, from mankind's earliest attempts at language to the digital worlds we now keep in our pockets. This isn't just a rollicking look back; Winchester asks what these systems do to our minds, for good and ill." - Los Angeles Times on Knowing What We Know
"With his typical fluency and range, Mr. Winchester . . . traces the intertwined evolution of knowledge, society and the individual, from ancient illiteracy to the wisdom of the hour, artificial intelligence. . . . Winchester is adroit at arranging information in pursuit of knowledge, and he has an eye for the anecdot. . . . Winchester is a knowledge keeper for our times, and he does us all a service by writing it down." - Wall Street Journal on Knowing What We Know