The Trinity Circle is about the group of Cambridge scholars, chiefly at Trinity College, who sought to resist aggressive utilitarianism and industrial materialism in early Victorian England by building and defending their vision of a liberal education. William Whewell is the hero of this book because of his life-long membership at Trinity and his extensive archive in the Wren Library. He called Trinity his second home. The son of a master carpenter, Whewell went to Cambridge in 1811 as a subsizar. He made his mark as assistant tutor, then tutor, and master of the college, in which office he served twice as university’s vice-chancellor. Whewell spread his wings with his work on tides and mineralogy for which he was elected to the Royal Society and Geological Society, of which he became president. He also advanced to a professorship in mineralogy (1828) and Knightbridge professor of moral philosophy (1838).
If Whewell...