History of Science & Knowledge

How the classic mirror test served as a portal for scientists to explore questions of self-awareness

A major new biography of the brilliant naturalist, traveler, humanitarian, and codiscoverer of natural selection

A new biography of Carl Linnaeus, offering a vivid portrait of Linnaeus’s life and work

A panoramic history of rules in the Western world

A treasury of astonishing mythic marvels—and the surprising truths behind them

A gripping and groundbreaking history of how ancient cultures developed and used biological, chemical, and other unconventional weapons of war

An artist’s uniquely personal journey across America

A beautifully illustrated exploration of Edward Lear's little-known career as a natural-history artist—now in a new expanded paperback edition

A bold and revolutionary perspective on the science and cultural history of menstruation

An illustrated look at the art and science of paleontology from its origins to today

How technological advances and colonial fears inspired utopian geoengineering projects during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

A sweeping germ’s-eye view of history from human origins to global pandemics

A panoramic history of the antiquarians whose discoveries transformed Renaissance culture and gave rise to new forms of art and knowledge

A compelling alternative account of the history of knowledge from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

A new history of French social thought that connects postwar sociology to colonialism and empire

A landmark history that traces the creation, management, and sharing of information through six centuries

How a new mathematical field grew and matured in America

How the concept of proof has enabled the creation of mathematical knowledge

A meticulously researched history on the development of American mathematics in the three decades following World War I

A sweeping cultural history of one of the most influential mathematical books ever written

A spellbinding look at the philosophical and moral implications of animal dreaming

An original deep history of the internet that tells the story of the centuries-old utopian dreams behind it—and explains why they have died today

A marvelously annotated and illustrated edition of Einstein’s South America travel diary

From the Nobel Prize–winning physicist, a personal meditation on the quest for objective reality in natural science

Leading scholars take stock of Darwin's ideas about human evolution in the light of modern science

How scientists through the ages have conducted thought experiments using imaginary entities—demons—to test the laws of nature and push the frontiers of what is possible

A finely drawn portrait of Einstein's sixteen months in Prague

A major new history of the race between two geniuses to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Europe

A fundamentally new approach to the history of science and technology

A comprehensive look at the mathematics, physics, and philosophy of Henri Poincaré

Plato's Ghost is the first book to examine the development of mathematics from 1880 to 1920 as a modernist transformation similar to those in art, literature, and music. Jeremy Gray traces the growth of mathematical modernism from its...

In a world supposedly governed by ruthless survival of the fittest, why do we see acts of goodness in both animals and humans? This problem plagued Charles Darwin in the 1850s as he developed his theory of evolution through natural...

A cultural history of the concept of pharmacy, both the material nature of drugs and the trade in medicine, in early modern China

From Nobel Prize–winning physicist P. J. E. Peebles, the story of cosmology from Einstein to today

A captivating historical look at the cultural and artistic significance of shells in early modern Europe

Mixing memoir and visionary science, a leading astrophysicist’s groundbreaking personal account of her life and ideas

Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy

The definitive account of Tesla's life and work

Leviathan and the Air-Pump examines the conflicts over the value and propriety of experimental methods between two major seventeenth-century thinkers: Thomas Hobbes, author of the political treatise Leviathan and vehement critic of...

The untold story of how hereditary data in mental hospitals gave rise to the science of human heredity

How Cold War America came to attribute human evolutionary success to our species' unique capacity for murder

A stimulating intellectual history of Ptolemy's philosophy and his conception of a world in which mathematics reigns supreme

Leading technologists, historians, and journalists reveal the stories behind the computer coding that touches all aspects of life—for better or worse

An amazing journey into the hidden realm of nature’s sounds

The epic story of human evolution, from our primate beginnings more than five million years ago to the agricultural era

A scientist’s inspiring vision of our return to the Moon as humanity’s next thrilling step in space exploration

A richly illustrated journey through the evolution of Africa’s extraordinary natural world across deep time