Summary of To Explain the World

"To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science" by Steven Weinberg is a sweeping history of science from ancient times to the present, focusing on some of the great minds who flourished between the 15th and 18th centuries. Weinberg looks at the work of such luminaries as Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton and shows how they synthesized existing knowledge and formulated new theories that enabled them to explain the world. He examines the scientific revolutions of the period and illuminates the scientists' struggles against religious dogma, political censorship, and entrenched academic bias. He also examines the early roots of many of the sciences, including mathematics, optics, and thermodynamics, and considers how their development sheds light on our modern understanding of the universe.