Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Publisher Unknown
Description
Contrary to popular belief, fostered in countless classrooms across the world, Christopher Columbus was not the first to discover that the earth was round. The idea of a spherical world had been widely accepted in educated circles from as early as the fourth century BC. Yet, bizarrely, it was not until the supposedly more rational nineteenth century that the notion of a flat earth really took hold. Meticulously researched and compellingly readable, Christine Garwood provides the first definitive account of this 'infamous idea'. She explodes the myths surrounding Columbus and the battles between science and religion, explores the wilder shores of flat-earth belief and establishes, without doubt, that the world is most emphatically not flat.
User reviews
LibraryThing member drneutron
Yep, there are people out there that believe the Earth is flat. OK, there aren't many of them, but they're there all right. After all, can *you* prove that the Earth is round? Moon landings? Fake. Google Earth? Please - fake. Anybody who's been in West Texas knows just how flat the Earth really
In spite of what some of us learned in school, Columbus didn't disprove the notion that the Earth is flat. In fact, most educated people since the ancient Greeks have understood that Earth is round. The mid-19th century, though, did bring changes to how we do science and our understanding of the world - how it was made, where it fits in the universe. And along with those changes came reactionaries. Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea is Christine Garwood's history of those who didn't believe the Earth was round in spite of the ample evidence of modern astronomy.
Some of these Flat Earthers (planoterrestrials!) were taking advantage of conflict between science and Christianity to make a name for themselves. Some used the Flat Earth Society as a way to get people to think for themselves and not rely on authority. Most, though, truly believed that the Earth is flat. Garwood mostly succeeds in getting the reader into the mindset of the leaders in Flat Earth thinking from about 1870 to the final fading away of the Flat Earth Society in America in 2001.
This is the kind of book I like - lots of interesting characters and plenty of discussion of how Flat Earth ideas fit into the context of the times. Garwood seems to like her subjects and while she doesn't agree with them, she doesn't trivialize them either. The main fault with the book is that the discussion is somewhat repetitive; Garwood tends to repeat herself when drawing conclusions. It's not enough to spoil the book, but some tightening would have been welcome.
Show More
is!In spite of what some of us learned in school, Columbus didn't disprove the notion that the Earth is flat. In fact, most educated people since the ancient Greeks have understood that Earth is round. The mid-19th century, though, did bring changes to how we do science and our understanding of the world - how it was made, where it fits in the universe. And along with those changes came reactionaries. Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea is Christine Garwood's history of those who didn't believe the Earth was round in spite of the ample evidence of modern astronomy.
Some of these Flat Earthers (planoterrestrials!) were taking advantage of conflict between science and Christianity to make a name for themselves. Some used the Flat Earth Society as a way to get people to think for themselves and not rely on authority. Most, though, truly believed that the Earth is flat. Garwood mostly succeeds in getting the reader into the mindset of the leaders in Flat Earth thinking from about 1870 to the final fading away of the Flat Earth Society in America in 2001.
This is the kind of book I like - lots of interesting characters and plenty of discussion of how Flat Earth ideas fit into the context of the times. Garwood seems to like her subjects and while she doesn't agree with them, she doesn't trivialize them either. The main fault with the book is that the discussion is somewhat repetitive; Garwood tends to repeat herself when drawing conclusions. It's not enough to spoil the book, but some tightening would have been welcome.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Darrol
This is a very important book of intellectual history. It should be read along with James Barr's Fundamentalism and the works of Richard Rorty. This book clearly illustrates that the Protestant sola scripura program is dead. (Not that the authoritarian Roman Catholic program is any more alive.) The
Show More
quibble that I have with this book is that it seem to imply that there is no logical problem with mainstream Christianity's adherence to the Bible and its loyalty to science. Show Less
LibraryThing member MiaCulpa
I saw this book in a remainders bin and grabbed it, looking forward to a humorous review of eccentrics and their belief in a flat earth. This book didn't really live up to the self-induced hype, however.
There were certainly some amusing moments ut Garwood provides too much detail at times, getting
There were certainly some amusing moments ut Garwood provides too much detail at times, getting
Show More
bogged down in describing every pamphlet and every public talk given by leading Zetetics. In particular, the Canadians who were decidedly not flat earthers did not deserve their own chapter and, the pages spent detailing occasions they got drunk together felt like desperate padding. Show Less
Original publication date
2007
Similar in this library
The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought by Thomas S. Kuhn
Empire of the stars : obsession, friendship, and betrayal in the quest for black holes by Arthur I. Miller
Knowledge is Power: How Magic, the Government and an Apocalyptic Vision Inspired Francis Bacon to Create Modern Science by John Henry