Scientifica Historica: How the World’s Great Science Books Chart the History of Knowledge

British science writer Clegg (Dark Matter and Dark Energy) charts a bibliographic course through over two millennia of writing in this sumptuously illustrated ode to the science book. Positing writing as the human invention central to scientific progress, Clegg observes that science builds on the ideas of others, and that writing enabled the storage and sharing of such ideas. His narrative begins with Aristotle’s Physics and ends in the present-day era of popularized science, with books such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and TV shows such as Cosmos. Refreshingly, Clegg includes non-Western texts, such as classic Arabic, Chinese, and Indian treatises on mathematics, and confronts the chauvinism responsible for the relative scarcity of female-authored works. Given the expanse of time under consideration, some of the connections between texts can feel overly manufactured, though never disingenuous. Clegg has a knack for finding charming details, which helps keep the narrative afloat, as when he explains how Darwin’s lifelong obsession—barnacles—helped distract him from completing Origin of Species for over two decades. Clegg’s enthusiasm for his subject is infectious, and by this entertaining and informative chronicle’s end, he will have convinced readers that the seemingly prosaic science book has been and will continue to be “a shining beacon of human progress.” (Oct.)