books & arts
Teaching chemistry through history
Organic Chemistry
Principles in
Context: A Story
Telling Historical
Approach
by Mark M. Green
SCIENCEFROMAWAY:
2012. 476 PP. $25.00
W
hat if everything you think you
know about chemistry textbooks
is wrong? In his book What
the Best College Teachers Do, Ken Bain
states several times that expert instructors
grab the attention of their class and
stimulate motivation in part by leading
with an intriguing question or stimulating
case study. Students need to buy into
something important, beautiful, practical
or artistic before meaningful learning
can take place. In embracing this idea,
Mark Green of the Polytechnic Institute of
New York University turns the traditional
undergraduate organic chemistry textbook
upside-down in his shockingly affordable
new textbook Organic Chemistry Principles
in Context. In fact, the most noticeable
aspect of this textbook is its deviation from
what many academics would consider
‘mainstream’ or ‘accepted’.
Gone are the glossy, colourful, three-
dimensional representations. Missing are
the 100 end-of-chapter practice problems.
Nowhere to be found are the generalized
representations of reactions or mechanisms
with ‘prototypical’ examples. Chapters are
no longer organized by functional group
where each section brings a brand new
reaction for the student to tackle. And
most surprisingly, a few chapters quote
at length from Wikipedia. This is not the
organic chemistry textbook you remember
from your schooling, and I suspect many
professors engaged in textbook review will
stop right here and summarily dismiss this
book without further consideration.
But instructors who scoff at Green’s
textbook based only on thumbing
through the pages will miss what he is
attempting to accomplish. The philosophy
of this textbook is one of immersion. Each
chapter is themed based on an intriguing
question or stimulating case study. Terms,
nomenclature, or reaction mechanisms
NATURE CHEMISTRY | VOL 5 | MAY 2013 | www.nature.com/naturechemistry 353
are only introduced if they are relevant to
unlocking the mystery presented in the
chapter’s theme. The textbook is similar
to a ‘Rosetta Stone’ approach to organic
chemistry. Terms are used immediately and
in context with few formal definitions, and
students learn concepts through as-needed
examples and principles.
The impressive use of constant
historical narrative is the most unique
facet of this textbook. Every section of
every chapter includes many historical
vignettes to expose students to the history,
controversies and major players in the
development of these concepts. The most
common illustration in this textbook is a
portrait of a chemist whose contributions
led to the essential concept being taught.
The chemistry of the present day is
understood by visiting the chemists of
the past, sometimes by reading their own
words from seminal publications. In many
ways, the textbook reads like a script for a
documentary about organic chemistry. The
historical context draws students into the
thematic stories and entices them to invest
in education for education’s sake.
In many ways, the textbook
reads like a script for
a documentary about
organic chemistry.
I asked a few current and former
students to read a chapter from the
textbook and provide feedback. I gave
them no overview or introduction to
the textbook, and their responses were
very interesting. It seems students were
expecting another reference manual, and
many criticized the differences. Most noted
they consult textbooks during post-class
review or when revising for exams, and
the narrative format made finding key
points challenging. Ever grade conscious,
some questioned whether the historical
information would be on the exam!
Students lamented the lack of
illustrations from a visual-learning angle.
In describing the text, students used
descriptors such as “dense”, “wordiest
organic chemistry textbook I have ever
read”, and at the same time “easy to read”,
“exceptionally interesting” and “more
engaging than a normal cut and dry organic
© 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
book”. Most students found themselves
appreciating the history, in spite of their
disappointment that this is not another
reference-manual-style textbook. One
student even caught on to the “intriguing
question” format of the chapter and
appreciated that it turned chemistry “into
an investigation discovery”.
The deciding factor in adopting this
textbook will be an instructor’s course
goals and learning objectives, and the
willingness to undergo a paradigm shift in
educational philosophy. Many instructors
bemoan trying to fit in one more reaction
and ‘sacrificing depth for breadth’. This
textbook trades breadth and depth for
historical context and significance.
Instructors will not find every ‘classical’
organic chemistry reaction from ‘classical’-
style textbooks, but I don’t find that to be a
problem. On entering their careers, many
of our students, especially non-majors, will
never be asked to draw the mechanism for
the Markovnikov addition of hydrogen
bromide to an alkene. Maybe wedging one
more reaction into one more chapter is not
always appropriate.
This book is a good overview of the
field, rich with historical context, but
lacks the flashiness of more traditional
textbooks. Both students and instructors
will have to buy into the philosophy of
the text, and students may need constant
reminders about the new philosophical
approach. Although Green uses this
textbook for his majors-level class (with
students who specialize in chemistry), I see
this book fitting better for a non-majors
organic chemistry class. For the segment
of students where neither excess breadth
nor depth in dozens of functional group
transformations is the most important
course goal, this textbook is a refreshing
deviation from the norm.
Is everything we know about textbooks
wrong? Probably not. Green explains in
the introduction that “we don’t learn the
alphabet before we hear people speaking…
The wonders of sound and shape and color
intrigue us and stimulate our desire to
figure out what is going on and what it all
means.” This textbook offers a fascinating
and dramatic change to the landscape of
textbook choice. ❐
REVIEWED BY ADAM M. AZMAN
Adam Azman is a lecturer in organic chemistry at
Butler University in Indianapolis, USA.