【书名】A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future
【作者】Charles Van Doren
【出版社】Ballantine Books
【版本】第一版
【出版日期】1992
【文件格式】PDF
【文件大小】24.3MB
【页数】444
【ISBN出版号】ISBN-10: 0345373162 | ISBN-13: 978-0345373168
【资料类别】科学历史
【市面定价】$16.95
【扫描版还是影印版】清晰,非扫描,也非影印
【是否缺页】不缺
【关键词】Knowledge, History
【内容简介】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."
【目录】
Contents
Acknowledgments
Author to Reader
1. Wisdom of the Ancients
2. The Greek Explosion
3. What the Romans Knew
4. Light in the Dark Ages
5. The Middle Ages: The Great Experiment
6. What Was Reborn in the Renaissance?
7. Europe Reaches Out
8. The Invention of Scientific Method
9. An Age of Revolutions
10. The Nineteenth Century: Prelude to Modernity
11. The World in 1914
12. The Twentieth Century: The Triumph of 'Democracy
13. The Twentieth Century: Science and Technology
14. The Twentieth Century: Art and the Media
15. The Next Hundred Years
Index
【review】
from amazon.com
At last a concise and brilliantly connected history of thought. Beginning with the "knowledge of the ancients" (which, to my pleasure, included information from ancient India, China and the Americas as well as from Egypt and the Middle East), Van Doren covers all the great theories and discoveries of the human race. Although I read it cover to cover, it would be just as useful (and enjoyable) to dig in and read it piecemeal.
The contributions of Einstein, Newton and Galileo are here, as are the ideas of Buddha, Martin Luther and Boethius. This is more than just a cataloguing of ideas and discoveries, though. Portraits of these individuals are made, and their contributions are placed in historical context. What is most remarkable, however is that van Doren has managed to squeeze all this information into a mere 412 pages.
The only shortcoming of the book is perhaps is length - but Van Doren sets out only to summarize, highlight and explain. With this in mind, he does an admirable job. The book is simply fascinating, and I highly recommend it.