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In terms of scientific interest, chemistry often takes a back seat to physics, with its mind-expanding concepts, and biology, which reveals alarming consequences. The title of this book is a reminder that everything is molecular--a few kinds of atoms bound together in endless specific combinations. This discovery is just as remarkable, profound, and unpredictable as quantum physics and biological evolution. In Molecular World Jackson (Univ. of Oxford, UK) describes this discovery in detail, revealing important aspects of that discovery on the part 19th-century chemists building a coherent set of concepts to underlie and explain the myriad organic compounds that could be identified and combined in their laboratories. Chemists debated and revised notions of what properties defined the identity of a chemical substance, and they shifted focus from analytical chemistry to synthetic chemistry. Among the surprises this book offers is the important role glassware played in the laboratory. Jackson's detailed book will benefit a broad range of scholars--historians and philosophers as well as scientists--not least because it calls into question ideas of science developed primarily in the context of physics or biology. Familiarity/comfort with the technical vocabulary of organic chemistry will be helpful. Careful, precise, and well documented in extensive notes and a rich bibliography, this book will be valuable for decades to come.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates to faculty and professionals.