The Booles and the Hintons

In 1983 Gerry Kennedy set off on a journey through Russia, China, Japan and the USA to visit others involved in the global anti-war movement. Only dimly aware of his early Victorian ancestors - George Boole, forefather of the digital revolution and James Hinton, eccentric philosopher and advocate of polygamy - he had unwittingly followed in the footsteps of two interrelated dynasties of radical thinkers and doers. Their notable achievements, in which the women were particularly prominent, involved many spheres. Boole's wife, Mary Everest, was an early advocate of hands-on education. Of the five talented Boole daughters, Ethel Voynich, wife of the discoverer in 1912 of the enigmatic Voynich Manuscript, campaigned with Russian anarchists to overthrow the Tsar. Her 1897 novel, The Gadfly, sold in millions behind the Iron Curtain. One of Ethel's sisters married Charles Howard Hinton, a leading exponent of the esoteric realm of the fourth dimension. Of their USA descendants, Carmelita Hinton also pioneered progressive education at her school in Putney, Vermont. Her children dedicated their lives to Mao's China. Joan Hinton, a nuclear scientist, defected to China and actively engaged in the Cultural Revolution. Her brother, William, wrote the influential documentary, Fanshen, based on his 1948 experience of rural revolutionary change. Other members of the clan became renowned in their fields of physics, entomology and botany. In The Booles and the Hintons the author embarks on a quest to reveal the stories behind their remarkable lives. Book jacket.