Print Price: $19.95

Format:
Paperback
448 pp.
59 b/w halftones, 129 mm x 196 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199580279

Publication date:
March 2010

Imprint: OUP UK

Science

A Four Thousand Year History

Dr. Patricia Fara

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.

Readership : Suitable for all those interested in the history of science and its development, from earliest times up to the 21st century.

Reviews

• Review from previous edition: "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 cab, and ending bang up to date. The content is ambitious. jusiciously and fairly handled...The narrative moves forward in an engaging way, while the enthusiasm and opinions of the author are never far from the surface. It is a book to provoke thought and argument. An impressive achievement."
  
  --Jim Bennett, BBC History Magazine 01/04/2008
• "For a very long time, reputable historians of science have lacked the desire, the knowledge, or the nerve to undertake a book like this -- an attempt to survey the development of science from Antiquity to the present, notably including non-European materials. Patricia Fara has succeeded: Science is an elegant and compact creative synthesis of the piecemeal researches of generations of academic historians. It deserves the widest possible readership."
  
  --Steven Shapin, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard, and author of The Scientific Revolution
• "Dismantling popular myths, taking a truly global view and dispensing with false idols, Fara's highly readable survey of science's histories is a breath of fresh air. She unerringly pinpoints the defining moods of each age, treating the past with respect and the present with discernment. This wonderfully literate book tells a story that is far, far more interesting than the tidy fictions of hindsight."
  
  --Philip Ball, Consultant Editor of Nature
• "Patricia Fara has written a fascinating account."
  
  --John Gribbin, Literary Review 01/03/2009
• "Wide-ranging and provocative... Romps through history at a terrific rate"
  
  --The Economist 11/06/2009