Product Description
Horizons
Author: James Poskett
Format: Paperback
A Global History of Science
'Superb' Sunday Times
'Revolutionary' — Alice Roberts
'Hugely important' — Jim Al-Khalili
A radical retelling of the history of science that foregrounds the scientists erased from history
In this major retelling of the history of science from 1450 to the present day, James Poskett explodes the myth that science began in Europe.
The blinkered Western gaze focusing on individual 'genius' - Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Einstein - was only one part of the story. The reality was an utterly global, non-linear pattern of cross-fertilization, competition, cooperation and outright conflict. Each rupture in history carved fresh channels for global exchange.
Here, for the first time, Poskett celebrates how scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific were integral to this very human story. We meet Graman Kwasi, the African botanist who discovered a new cure for malaria; Hantaro Nagaoka, the Japanese scientist who first described the structure of the atom; and Zhao Zhongyao, the Chinese physicist who discovered antimatter.
'Remarkable. Challenges almost everything we know about science in the West' Jerry Brotton, author of A History of the World in 12 Maps
'Perspective-shattering' Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, 'Editor's Choice'
'Horizons upends traditional accounts of the history of science' — Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred
'Poskett deftly blends the achievements of little-known figures into the wider history of science . . . brims with clarity' — Chris Allnutt, Financial Times
About the Author
James Poskett is Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Warwick. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge where he also held the Adrian Research Fellowship at Darwin College. Poskett has written for the Guardian, Nature, and BBC History Magazine, among others, and his research has taken him across the world, from astronomical observatories in India to natural history museums in Australia. In 2013 he was shortlisted for the BBC New Generation Thinker Award and in 2012 he was awarded the Best Newcomer Prize by the Association of British Science Writers. He is the author of the academic book, Materials of the Mind, and Horizons is his first for a general readership.
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