The Beginnings of Western Science

Lindberg does an excellent job of tracing the history of the sciences (broadly construed) from prehistory to the late Middle Ages. He covers, physics, optics, medicine, biology, chemistry (in the form of alchemy), astronomy, and astrology with very good contextualization of the knowledge. You learn why smart people in the past would think that astrology makes sense. The author is very careful about explaining why medieval "scientists" thought as they did, and I find this method much more illuminating than comparing against modern ideas directly (although understanding them from the lens of modernity can be useful). I found the writing quite good and witty with plenty of authorial style shining through. If you want to know the history of science until the Scientific Revolution beginning in the 1600s (the title says to 1450), then this is a great book to introduce you to all relevant aspects of philosophy.

Das Buch ist eine sehr gute Ideengeschichte zur Entstehung abendlaendischer Wissenschaft, wie es mir in der deutschsprachigen Literatur selten begegnete. Mit Kindle sind englischsprachige Buecher leichter zu deutsche Leser zu lesen. Das ist fuer mich der Hauptvorteil von Kindle.

This book (2nd ed.) was written by David Lindberg, a well-known professor of the history of science who taught at the U. of Wisconsin (Madison). The book covers pre-Greek (Egyptian, Mesopotomian), Greek, Roman, Islamic, and Medieval science in 14 chapters (367 pp. + notes and bibliog.). The book includes nearly a hundred black&white figures and illustrations, but only 6 maps. I bought the book for personal reading but it has also been used as a text in history of science classes. It includes a chapter on medieval medicine (anatomy, surgery, early hospitals). The book is non-technical (no math equations) but polished and scholarly, and is aimed at general readers who have an interest in both science and history. The bibliography is extensive (48 pages!), providing a wealth of information for those who want to further explore specific topics. Highly recommended as a broad introduction to the history of science up to medieval times. For those interested in medieval science, I also recommend Science in the Middle Ages, edited by Lindberg.

The material is presented pretty forward. There are sub-chapters within chapter, which at least in my case, makes it a much more tolerable read. Plus, it's $12 dollars cheaper here than at the bookstore.

This is one of several books that serve as a corrective to the popular myth that the fall of Rome was followed by the "Dark Ages." In this book, the development of modern science is traced from pre-history through the classical period (Greece and Rome) and afterward. Discoveries and the transmission of learning after the fall of Rome in Islamic lands and in the West is covered in readable detail. Unlike similar books, the author does not wish to address why science withered away in Islam, instead wanting to end that section on a positive note (something to the effect that we should instead be amazed at how long it lasted). It is also rather more detailed tour on the thought and discoveries of the "ancients". For anyone who has been steeped in the mythology that the history of scientific progress was Greece/Rome, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment, this book (and/or the others listed below) should be required reading. That would cover mostly anyone educated in our colleges and high schools in the last fifty years. Other books in this vein worth reading: The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution , Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective , The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts (Cambridge Studies in the History of Science) .