Hannam J. The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution

Washington: Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2011. — 481 p. — ISBN: 9781596981553.Maybe the Dark Ages Weren't So Dark After All…
Here are some facts you probably didn't learn in school:
People in the Middle Ages did not think the world was flat–in fact, medieval scholars could prove it wasn't;
The Inquisition never executed anyone because of their scientific ideas or discoveries (actually, the Church was the chief sponsor of scientific research and several popes were celebrated for their knowledge of the subject);
It was medieval scientific discoveries, methods, and principles that made possible western civilization's "Scientific Revolution".
If you were taught that the Middle Ages were a time of intellectual stagnation, superstition, and ignorance, you were taught a myth that has been utterly refuted by modern scholarship.
As a physicist and historian of science James Hannam shows in his brilliant new book, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution, without the scholarship of the "barbaric" Middle Ages, modern science simply would not exist.
The Middle Ages were a time of one intellectual triumph after another. As Dr. Hannam writes, "The people of medieval Europe invented spectacles, the mechanical clock, the windmill, and the blast furnace by themselves. Lenses and cameras, almost all kinds of machinery, and the industrial revolution itself all owe their origins to the forgotten inventors of the Middle Ages."
In The Genesis of Science you will discover:
Why the scientific accomplishments of the Middle Ages far surpassed those of the classical world;
How medieval craftsmen and scientists not only made discoveries of their own, but seized upon Eastern inventions–printing, gunpowder, and the compass–and improved them beyond the dreams of their originators;
How Galileo's notorious trial before the Inquisition was about politics, not science; and
Why the theology of the Catholic Church, far from being an impediment, led directly to the development of modern science.
Provocative, engaging, and a terrific read, James Hannam's The Genesis of Science will change the way you think about our past – and our future.List of Illustrations:
Map of medieval Europe
Introduction: The Truth about Science in the Middle Ages
After the Fall of Rome: Progress in the Early Middle Ages
The Mathematical Pope
The Rise of Reason
The Twelfth-Century Renaissance
Heresy and Reason
How Pagan Science Was Christianized
Bloody Failure: Magic and Medicine in the Middle Ages
The Secret Arts of Alchemy and Astrology
Roger Bacon and the Science of Light
The Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford
The Merton Calculators
The Apogee of Medieval Science
New Horizons
Humanism and the Reformation
The Polymaths of the Sixteenth Century
The Workings of Man: Medicine and Anatomy
Humanist Astronomy and Nicolaus Copernicus
Reforming the Heavens
Galileo and Giordano Bruno
Galileo and the New Astronomy
The Trial and Triumph of Galileo
Conclusion: A Scientific Revolution?
Suggestions for Further Reading
Timeline
List of Key Characters
Notes
Bibliography of Works Cited
Acknowledgements