Science: A Four Thousand Year History - Hardcover

Fara, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019922689X ISBN 13: 9780199226894

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2009

Synopsis

Science: A Four Thousand Year History rewrites science's past. Instead of focussing on difficult experiments and abstract theories, Patricia Fara shows how science has always belonged to the practical world of war, politics, and business. Rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people - men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals in their quest for success. Fara sweeps through the centuries, from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, illuminating the financial interests, imperial ambitions, and publishing enterprises that have made science the powerful global phenomenon that it is today. She also ranges internationally, illustrating the importance of scientific projects based around the world, from China to the Islamic empire, as well as the more familiar tale of science in Europe, from Copernicus to Charles Darwin and beyond. Above all, this four thousand year history challenges scientific supremacy, arguing controversially that science is successful not because it is always right - but because people have said that it is right.

About this title

Review:

An impressive and commendable effort to square the circle, to tell science's history, from the beginning. (Martin D. Gordin, Science)

It offers pretty exciting material. (Michael D. Gordin, Science)

...unfailingly enjoyable...The punchy, short chapters make Science suitable for commuting or reading in bed. It can be prescribed as a remedy or palliative for many maladies, including scientistic hubris and the myopia of anyone who still has faith in progress (Felipe Fernandez- Armesto. Times Literary Supplement)

Patricia Fara...is now one of our most entertaining, incisive and irreverent historians of science. (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Times Literay Supplement)

Wide-ranging and provocative. (The Economist)

Epic history of science. (Jo Marchant, New Scientist)

Fara's book could not be more wide-ranging, beginning [with] the quest to take the story of science as far back as she possibly can, and ending bang up to date. (Jim Bennett, BBC History Magazine)

It is a book to provoke thought and argument. An impressive achievement. (Jim Bennett, BBC History Magazine)

Patricia Fara has written a fascinating account. (John Gribbin, Literary Review)

About the Author:

Patricia Fara lectures in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and is the Senior Tutor of Clare College. She is the author of numerous books, including Fatal Attraction: Magnetic Mysteries of the Enlightenment and Newton: The Making of Genius. Her writing has appeared in New Scientist, Nature, The Times, and New Statesman, and she writes a regular column for Endeavour.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 019922689X
• ISBN 13: 9780199226894
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 424