The discoverers
The Discoverers is a non-fiction historical work by Daniel Boorstin, published in 1983, and is the first in the Knowledge Trilogy, which also includes The Creators and The Seekers. The book, subtitled A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself, is a history of human discovery. Discovery in many forms is described: exploration, science, medicine, mathematics, and more-theoretical ones, such as time, evolution, plate tectonics, and relativity. Boorstin praises the inventive, human mind and its eternal quest to discover the universe and humanity's place in it.
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- Jacques Barzun - From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present (2001)
The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1864)
Intellectuals By Paul Johnson
Daniel J. Boorstin - The Discoverers
The Great Courses - The Industrial Revolution (audiobook/lectures)
Decline of the West - Spengler
- The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself - Daniel J. Boorstin
How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom - Matt Ridley
The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation - Carl Benedikt Frey
- An absolutely terrific book about (among other things) this is The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin. He goes into a lot of detail on how map making in Europe for the longest time was driven, as you say, more by religious importance than anything else. Interestingly when Europeans did get more serious about accurate maps this was for a large part driven by the search for the fabled Prester John, a Christian king thought to be ruling in India or Africa.
- Thumbs up fir Bryson. To take it a step further, Boorstin's "The Discoverers" is a longer, more encompassing version of scientific discoveries.
Also, "Empires of Light" is a great chronology of events and people(Tesla, Edison, Westinghouse, JP Morgan) leading to the modern, electric world.
One more, "The Idea Factory" is a history of Bell Labs. It is surprisingly light on programming but makes up for it in the hardware/electronics topics.
- A fantastic book that deals with the cultural significance of timekeeping along with other ancient technological advancements is The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin.
http://www.amazon.com/Discoverers-Daniel-J-Boorstin/dp/03947...
- If you're interested in this, the absolutely wonderful book "The Discoverers" by Daniel Boorstin goes into a lot of detail on how humankind discovered time and developed methods to keep time.
