Customer Reviews

The History of Astronomy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

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This is an excellent short history of developments in astronomy from prehistory to the 19th century. And there is perhaps no one better suited than Michael Hoskin to write it: he is the editor of the `Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy'; he has also been the long-standing editor of the `Journal for the History of Astronomy.' He if anyone can distill millennia of stargazing to under 125 pages.

The six short chapters cover the sky in prehistory, astronomy in antiquity, astronomy in the middle ages, the Copernican revolution, astronomy in the age of Newton, and developments in stellar and nebular astronomy (looking beyond our solar system). The book also provides a number of useful illustrations.

This is a great primer, a perfect pocket introduction to the history of astronomy.

Astronomy is one of the oldest intellectual disciplines, and together with mathematics it has a distinction that its history can be traced continuously for several thousands of years. In fact, it is probably much older than mathematics, since we have indirect evidence that even the Stone Age peoples had used positions of stars in the sky for navigation, not to mention all the effort that had gone in the understandings of the sun and the moon. It is maybe somewhat surprising to the moderns that for the better part of its history astronomy had a very practical and sometimes crucial role to play in human societies. As has already been mentioned, being able to predict positions of the stars was invaluable in navigation, and the monthly and yearly positions of the moon and the sun were crucial for the planning of large and predictable agricultural projects.

This very short introduction aims to recapture some of these historical developments. It deals with all the major highlights in the (recorded) history of astronomy up to the middle of the nineteenth century. It is a fascinating look at the way that our understanding of the humanity's place in the universe has developed. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the author did not go down the trite and misleading "religion vs. science" path when approaching this subject, and showed how for each astronomical development there have been many points of view within religious community itself. Furthermore, many (most?) religions do rely on astronomical phenomena for their religious observances, and have throughout history been major supporters of astronomical research.

This is very well written and accessible book. As someone who enjoys reading about both history and science I have been practically glued to it. I highly recommend it.

Lucid overview of the development of astronomy as a science, from ancient times till the mid-19th century.

This "Short Introduction" was certainly informative for me. And it was what I expected. Now, I hope that there will be a sequel that picks up where this one ends, updates us readers into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

I love this Oxford "A Very Short Introduction:..." series. I have quite a collection and have yet to find an edition I didn't enjoy reading or learn something new from. If you want an accessible introduction to a new difficult subject, this series is the place to begin from.