Horizons
A Global History of Science
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Horizons
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Narrated by:
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Sid Sagar
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By:
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James Poskett
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
A radical retelling of the history of science that challenges the Eurocentric narrative.
We are told that modern science was invented in Europe, the product of great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. But this is wrong. Science is not, and has never been, a uniquely European endeavour.
Copernicus relied on mathematical techniques borrowed from Arabic and Persian texts. When Newton set out the laws of motion, he relied on astronomical observations made in Asia and Africa. When Darwin was writing On the Origin of Species, he consulted a 16th-century Chinese encyclopaedia. And when Einstein was studying quantum mechanics, he was inspired by the Bengali physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose. Horizons pushes beyond Europe, exploring the ways in which scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific fit into the history of science, and arguing that it is best understood as a story of global cultural exchange.
Challenging both the existing narrative and our perceptions of revered individuals, above all this is a celebration of the work of scientists neglected by history. Among many others, we meet Graman Kwasi, the 17th-century African botanist who discovered a new cure for malaria, Hantaro Nagaoka, the 19th-century Japanese scientist who first described the structure of the atom and Zhao Zhongyao, the 20th-century Chinese physicist who discovered antimatter (but whose American colleague received the Nobel prize).
Scientists today are quick to recognise the international nature of their work. In this ambitious and revisionist history, James Poskett reveals that this tradition goes back much further than we think.
©2022 James Poskett (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Horizons
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 09-01-23
Very thoughtful and balanced
Great read with very poignant telling of the history of science. Showing new angles and highlighting great stories! Great listen!
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- The Phantom Agent
- 16-09-22
The Curate's Egg
The book contains a wealth of interesting anecdotes that will probably garner the interest of the uninitiated. Regrettably, these stories, interesting as they may be, are continually interrupted by the author reasserting his 'thesis' ad nauseum throughout the work. Much of the book comes across like a school student's essay in which the student has been coached to say the right things at the right time. Putting aside the arrogance one can detect in the author's assertions, the stories he relays simply do not support his thesis. Minor incidents are placed at centre stage and given a significance the evidence cannot support while major developments are ignored. I am always happy to read works by people who hold different views to my own but the underlying ideological concerns of this work are tedious and often descend to the level of propaganda. This book sets out to deny the important role of reason in scientific advancement, falsely presents Western science as a guise for greedy imperialists and misrepresents the Western achievement. I overlooked the author's misrepresentation of the Ancient authors, his misunderstanding of the medieval world and a plethora of other key errors. However, his account of the history of evolution was deliberately misleading and a step too far for this reader, unless, of course, the author of the book really does not understand the true nature of the Darwinian Revolution. For those who want more than a series of interesting anecdotes wrapped around an unsubstantiated thesis of dubious value, you will need to look elsewhere.
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2 people found this helpful