Isaac Newton: what's a good biography of him that covers his non-science activities? Bonus Q: why did he put England on the Gold standard?

by [deleted]

Did he ever write why he did?

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If you're looking for a nice popular book, Tom Levenson's Newton and the Counterfeiter is pretty good. The standard academic biography of Newton is Richard Westfall's Never at Rest but at nearly 1,000 pages it is not for the faint of heart.