Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science

Author: James Poskett

"A radical retelling... Poskett deftly blends the achievements of little-known figures into the wider history of science... The book brims with clarity."--Financial Times

The history of science as it has never been told before: a tale of outsiders and unsung heroes from far beyond the Western canon that most of us are taught.

When we think about the origins of modern science we usually begin in Europe. We remember the great minds of Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein. But the history of science is not, and has never been, a uniquely European endeavor. Copernicus relied on mathematical techniques that came from Arabic and Persian texts. Newton's laws of motion used astronomical observations made in Asia and Africa. When Darwin was writing On the Origin of Species, he consulted a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopedia. And when Einstein studied quantum mechanics, he was inspired by the Bengali physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose.

Horizons is the history of science as it has never been told before, uncovering its unsung heroes and revealing that the most important scientific breakthroughs have come from the exchange of ideas from different cultures around the world. In this ambitious, revelatory history, James Poskett recasts the history of science, uncovering the vital contributions that scientists in Africa, America, Asia, and the Pacific have made to this global story.

Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 03/22/2022
Pages: 464
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 1.60d
ISBN: 9780358251798

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/25/2022

About the Author
JAMES POSKETT is Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Warwick. He has written for the Guardian and Nature among others, and was shortlisted for the BBC New Generation Thinker Award and awarded the Best Newcomer Prize by the Association of British Science Writers. He lives in Warwickshire, England.