The Story of Western Science

From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory

By: Susan Wise Bauer

Narrated by: Julian Elfer

Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

A riveting road map to the development of modern scientific thought.

Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.

Able to be referenced individually or listened to together as the narrative of Western scientific development, the book's 28 succinct chapters lead listeners from the first science texts by Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle through 20th-century classics in biology, physics, and cosmology. The Story of Western Science illuminates everything from mankind's earliest inquiries to the butterfly effect, from the birth of the scientific method to the rise of earth science and the flowering of modern biology.

Each chapter recommends one or more classic books and provides entertaining accounts of crucial contributions to science, vivid sketches of the scientist-writers, and clear explanations of the mechanics underlying each concept. The Story of Western Science reveals science to be a dramatic undertaking practiced by some of history's most memorable characters. It reminds us that scientific inquiry is a human pursuit - an essential, often deeply personal, sometimes flawed, frequently brilliant way of understanding the world.

In the tradition of her perennial best seller The Well-Educated Mind, Susan Wise Bauer delivers an accessible, entertaining, and illuminating springboard into the scientific education you never had.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2015 Susan Wise Bauer (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

This is one I will listen to again.

Worth the time it takes to get through this book. We don't learn how the sciences developed historically. We also don't get a concept for how recent so many discoveries have been. I wish the Audio book chapters were labeled with more than numbers so it was more easy to reference back to it.

Good survey of the science.

Not too deep in the weeds so that a layman can't understand the science. .

outstanding breadth, coherent narrative

after thoroughly enjoying the Author's histories of the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Worlds, this was the next available title. I hope she undertakes a history of the Modern World series to complement the others.

witty, brilliant, and funny

Bauer does it again. Another brilliantly crafted historical overview, this time of western scientific thought and the men and women who contributed to our current understanding of the world around us. I highly recommend this and all of Dr. Bauer's other titles as a satisfying read that will entertain and enlighten in equal measure.

Good summary of Science

It was just brief on certain topics, good book in all. Short and to the point.

Good overview

This provides a good, relatively brief and easy to understand overview of the development of science as a discipline apart from philosophy and religion.

My only (minor) disappointment was in the choice of narrator; generally I would expect that a book written by a woman would be narrated by a woman unless there is an obvious reason for a male narrator (e.g. in some fiction). Other than this, the narrator did his job professionally.

Story of Science.

Lots of information on different scientist through history. Good narrator and interesting. Have fun listing.

A very entertaining history of the struggle to discover the truth.

Each section has its gems. I thought I might skip geology for Ive have never gravitated toward that science, I am happy I decided not to do so for I found an important piece in the ever refining human view of reality. If you are not schooled in science, this book we help you understand what science is and how it can to be.

Great but with one big caveat

I love this author’s books but almost gave up on this one. Whose idea was it to have the narrator read all of the references in an audiobook? Imagine listening to someone repeat over and over “H, T, T, P, colon, slash, slash, double u, double u, double u . . .”. Please, nobody listening to an audiobook is jotting down URLs. Put it in an accompanying pdf and refer people to that. If you want to listen to this, you’ll have to get used to fast forwarding over these spots which is annoying. Aside from this big mistake, the book itself is very good. If you are a fan of Susan Wise Bauer, the fast forwarding may be worthwhile.

Good but not life changing

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The book just kind of ends. There is no wrap up. It just stops

Any additional comments?

This was an OK book. The stories were good but like my title says, this is not a life changing book. Probably will not read it again. The constant reading off of the website and telling me where I can find the books mentioned was distracting and took away from the book. I know how the internet works. Give me the website once. Google is pretty good at finding stuff like that.