This installment in a series on science and technology in world history begins in the fourteenth century, explaining the origin and nature of scientific methodology and the relation of science to religion, philosophy, military history, economics and technology. Specific topics covered include the Black Death, the Little Ice Age, the invention of the printing press, Martin Luther and the Reformation, the birth of modern medicine, the Copernican Revolution, Galileo, Kepler, Isaac Newton, and the Scientific Revolution.

David Deming is a professor of Arts & Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. A geophysicist, research scientist and historian, he has written on topics ranging from the history of science to climate change and energy resources.

David Deming

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 327
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6172-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9086-8
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

1. Famine and Pestilence      3
The Little Ice Age (c. 1300–1860)      3
The Black Death (1348–1350)      5

2. The Witch Mania (c. 1450–1700)      14
Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft      14

3. The Printing Press (1450)      28
Science, Repeatability and the Printing Press      28

4. A Short History of Censorship      35
Ancient World      35

5. The Renaissance (c. 1350–1650)      43
Humanism and the Revival of Learning      43
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)      48

6. The Reformation      58
The Corruption of the Roman Catholic Church (c. 1000–1500)      58
Martin Luther (1483–1546)      62

7. Birth of Modern Medicine      87
European Medicine in the Middle Ages (c. 600–1500)      87
Paracelsus (1493–1541)      95
The Reform of Anatomy and Physiology      106

8. Educational Reform and Peter Ramus (1515–1572)      113
Scholastic Pedantry      113

9. The Copernican Revolution      127
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)      127
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601)      140
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630)      146

10. The Scientific Revolution (c. 1543–1687)      158
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)      158
Francis Bacon (1561–1626)      183
Experimental Philosophy in Seventeenth Century Europe      203
Isaac Newton (1642–1727)      216

Conclusion      259
Chapter Notes      262
Bibliography      299
Index      314