The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

In The Invention of Science, historian David Wootton examines the Scientific Revolution and the factors that led to this transformation across continents and centuries. Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution consisted of five separate yet concurrent events that merged to create a new worldview. The book chronicles figures including Galileo, Copernicus, Brahe, and Newton, whose studies of the natural world challenged religious orthodoxy and established superstition. Wootton traces how developments such as gunpowder technology, the discovery of the new world, movable type printing, perspective painting, and the telescope, combined with the practice of conducting experiments, the laws of nature, and the concept of the fact, became codified into a social construct and system of knowledge. Wootton demonstrates the connection between scientific discovery and the rise of industrialization, showing how the Scientific Revolution led to the modern world.