A People’s History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and “Low Mechanicks”

In A People’s History of Science the attention is at last turned to hunter-gathers, peasant farmers, sailors, miners, blacksmiths, folk healers, and others who wrested the means of their survival from an encounter with nature on a daily basis.

The science of medicine began with knowledge of plants — therapeutic properties discovered by preliterate ancient people. Chemistry and metallurgy originated with ancient miners, smiths and potters; geology and archaeology were also born in the mines. Mathematics owes its existence and a great deal of its development to surveyors, merchants, clerk-accountants, and mechanics of many millennia.

Howard Zinn calls this “. . . a delightfully refreshing new look at the history of science. I know of nothing like it, because it approaches that history free of the usual elitist preconceptions, and shows, in an inspiring way, the role that ordinary people, working people, played in the development of science.” [Description by Book Noise.]

ISBN: 9781560257486 | Nation Books