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HistoryJanuary 21, 2016
Before Europe’s Intrusion
A 17th-century map reinforces what few other than historians of China have known: It was an open and diverse world with a long tradition of maritime commerce.
Paula Findlen
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BiographyMarch 26, 2014
From Visionary to the Fringe
Immanuel Velikovsky’s strange quest for a scientific theory of everything
Paula Findlen
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BiographyApril 3, 2013
Kircher’s Cosmos: On Athanasius Kircher
How did a man who got so many things wrong become an intellectual celebrity in his own lifetime?
Paula Findlen
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Cultural Criticism and AnalysisAugust 29, 2012
Scissor Work: On the Unintended Reformation
Brad Gregory wants to upend how we think about the emergence of capitalism, secularism and individualism.
Paula Findlen
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BiographyFebruary 15, 2012
Galileo’s Credo
Two new biographies differ over the astronomer’s view of the relationship between science and faith.
Paula Findlen
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Cultural Criticism and AnalysisApril 13, 2011
Before the Flood: Information Before the Information Age
Ann Blair’s Too Much to Know explains how across the centuries the profusion of information has always inspired readers to invent shortcuts to knowledge.
Paula Findlen
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Books and IdeasMay 12, 2010
The Enhancement of the Senses
In The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes lucidly charts how the Romantics were as transfixed by the failures of science as they were by its bright accomplishments.
Paula Findlen
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BiographySeptember 10, 2008
A Hungry Mind: Giordano Bruno, Philosopher and Heretic
Ingrid Rowland’s Giordano Bruno rediscovers the Renaissance philosopher and heretic.
Paula Findlen