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    Cover of A History of Knowledge

    A History of Knowledge

    Charles Lincoln Van Doren · 1992

    A one-voume reference to the history of ideas that is a compendium of everything that humankind has thought, invented, created, considered, and perfected from the beginning of civilization into the twenty-first century. Massive in its scope, and yet totally accessible, A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE covers not only all the great theories and discoveries of the human race, but also explores the social conditions, political climates, and individual men and women of genius that brought ideas to fruition throughout history. "Crystal clear and concise...Explains how humankind got to know what it knows." Clifton Fadiman Selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the History Book Club

    Other
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    1recommend
    2mentions
    2people
    2009–2021years
    50% recommend50% neutral

    Mentions per year

    2009201120132015201720192021

    What Hacker News says

    1. aristusFeb 2009
      Everything and More, by David Foster Wallace (history of inifinity)

      Lord of Light, by Zelazny (fiction, but transcendent)

      The Trial of Socrates, by I.F. Stone (makes the case that Socrates was a genuine threat to his society)

      Any book by Ryszard Kapuscinski

      The Histories, by Herodotus

      To Engineer is Human, by Petroski

      A History of Knowledge, by Charles Van Doren

      thread
    2. avancemosOct 2021
      "Think what we please, and say what we think—how better to sum up the happiness of political freedom? And the reverse is pure tyranny." - A History of Knowledge, Charles Van Doren.
      thread

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