The Genesis of Science

How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution

By: James Hannam

Narrated by: Rich Germaine

Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

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."

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.

©2011 James Hannam (P)2013 Regnery Publishing

Progress during the Middle Ages

This is a very interesting book showing the antecedents of familiar historic scientists such as Galileo, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and others. Clearly written and narrated, this is a book for people who are interested in science rather than scientists. I have a soft spot for the Middle Ages so it was rewarding to hear about advances during that time. Highly recommend!

Enjoying. But the narration wasn't well prepared

This is an interesting book. I wish it had many fewer mispronunciations and fewer misreadings.

Needs to be read more often.

Great Exposition of Science and how it developed not in spite of, but because of, the influence of Catholicism. That events like the Gaileo affair should not tar and feather the Church’s relationship with Science.

Excellent book!

I learned so much about science and the development of the Western World, in addition to many things about ancient Greece & the Middle-East.

Insightful!

The "Genesis of Science" is a marvelous journey into the distant past of the "Dark Ages" that uncovers the birth of of the disciplinary fields of science. It is a wonderfully written book that reveals the process by which the fore-fathers of science studied creation with the understanding of it being created by a Creator. Dig in and enjoy the journey!

Unable to convince me of his point.

The book was interesting from a historical point. Lots of good information and clearly well researched. The point he was trying to make was not really made. Essentially I felt he was blaming the scientists for their own demise and making excuses for the church as to why they punished people that decided to challenge the church. Yeah most of the intellectuals were Christians but that is not saying much if 90% of the people around you are Christians. I digress, good book with good historical information. Fell very short of proving that the church is the reason we have scientific breakthroughs.

Weak, wandering

What could James Hannam have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

He could have dealt with the topic he declared: the history of science in the middle ages. So much time is spent of peripheral issues & stories that he ends up supporting the meme he decries in the 1st chapter- the darkness of the times.