A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE

by Arthur Gregor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1962

However informative and accurately researched, the average science book for teens is more appropriately geared for the student with a special aptitude for the subject. Not so with this. In a smooth, comprehensive and truly readable overview, Arthur Gregor succeeds in translating the most significant scientific achievements from earliest times to the atomic age in terms any intelligent child can grasp. There is excitement in this story as well -- for the questions posed by the greats of science are heard in dialogue and the answers reduced to simple essentials. These are not isolated biographies. Rather they are specific discoveries recorded in the context of each particular age, reflecting its spirit and reaction. Until the emergence of Hippocrates, Archimedes, Aristotle, etc., science in ancient times was a dark secret guarded by the priests. The Middle Ages was a time of forgetting, yet Roger Bacon predicted aspects of modern civilization. Leonardo da Vinci stands on the boundary between ancient and relatively modern approaches to science. The work of Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, the explosion of myths about the Universe in the 18th century; achievements of William Harvey, Lavoisier, and subsequent discoveries in the fields of electricity and radioactivity have all been described before, but rarely with such regard for the overall picture. Our own atomic rocket age and the great figures who made it possible wind up a story we recommend to the majority of readers who ordinarily shy away from Science Books.

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION