Out in Paperback / The Beginnings of Western Science

The Beginnings of Western Science -- The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450 -- 2d Edition by David C. Lindberg, UChicago Press '07, $25, 488 pages, ISBN #0-226-48205-7. Index, bibliography, source notes, b&w images sprinkled through text.

David C. Lindberg, Hilldale Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took on an outsized challenge in 1992, by uniting the history of both ancient and medieval science in one volume. In its 2d Edition, he has made revisions to nearly every page and rewritten several sections.

"For example, the section on Islamic science has been thoroughly retooled to reveal the magnitude and sophistication of medieval Muslim scientific achievement," he writes. "And the book now reflects a sharper awareness of the importance of Mesopotamian science for the development of Greek astronomy."