History of Science in World Cultures

Scott Montgomery is an affiliate faculty member in the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington (Seattle). His publications include Does Science Need a Global Language? English and the Future of Research (2013), Science and Translation: Movements of Knowledge in Culture and Time (2001), and The Scientific Voice (1996).Alok Kumar is professor of physics at the State University of New York, Oswego. His publications include Science in the Medieval World (1991 and 1996) and Sciences of the Ancient Hindus: Unlocking Nature in the Pursuit of Salvation (2014).

• List of figures. Preface. 1. Cultural Diversity and The Scientific Endeavor 2. Science in Egypt: Creating a Civilization 3. Land Between Two Rivers: Science in Ancient Mesopotamia 4. Indian Science: A Great Blending of Traditions 5The Greeks and Science: Powers of Discovery and Inheritance 6. Science in China: The Wages of Order and Invention 7. Science in Islam: Absorption and Transformation 8. New World Civilizations: Olmecs, Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs 9. Interpreting the World: Europe Builds a New Mind 10. Conclusion: Themes in the World History of Scientific Cultures. Index.

"Scholarly yet accessible, rich in detail yet thematically clear, ambitious yet balanced in scope."Richard Beyler, Portland State University, USA"For the past twenty years, Scott Montgomery has been in the forefront of studying the role that translation has played in the history of science. This book is a culmination of that work. In a bold inversion of how general histories of science are normally written, Montgomery and Kumar show how eight world cultures – each with its own knowledge-producing traditions – fed into what we now recognize as the ‘Scientific Revolution’ of 17th-century Europe. Readers will be impressed by just how much of that history can be told simply by following the movement of people and ideas across lands and languages. The result is an account of ‘science as civilization’ that is a worthy successor to the project first laid down a century ago by the founder of the history of science field, George Sarton."Steve Fuller, University of Warwick, UK