Though the edition I picked up didn’t look like a children’s
book, William
Bynum’s A Little History of Science
is written for children. I’m in my forth decade and I enjoyed it anyway.
The title suggests the subject, but hardly the breadth. Bynum starts
with the first, unnamed people to observe and think about the world around
them. He ends with current science
such as computer
science and gene
mapping.
It wouldn’t be write to say that depth suffers because of the breadth.
Admittedly, each chapter covers a subject that could in itself provide enough
material for a book. However, Bynum’s purpose is to provide an introduction to
a lot of areas of science and to show how scientific knowledge grows and
improves over time. It covers all the major branches of science including physics, chemistry, and
biology. He
does this very well.
For someone who wants a place to get started, especially a youngster
interested in history
or science, this is a good book. Though Bynum does not include a bibliography,
he drops a lot of names. Almost every notable name in scientific history, and a
few lesser known, is mentioned, so someone could be equipped with a list of
names when the hit the card catalog to find the next book that might interest
them.
I do not know if Bynum subscribes to the “big men” notion of history.
As much as he mentions the major figures and the leaps some of them made, he
emphasizes the incremental, even iterative, nature of science. Even so,
learning history through biography
can be interesting because history is the cumulative action of people, even if
a single person can’t truly turn the tide, and some people are interesting,
especially the cranky ones (like Isaac Newton).
Bynum adds enough biographical touches to his history to add this kind of
spice.
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