The Day the Universe Changed

The companion volume for the award-winning PBS and BBC series from “one of the most intriguing minds in the western world” (The Washington Post).The Day the Universe Changed presents a sweeping view of the history of science, technology, and human civilization and examines the moments in history when a change in knowledge radically altered man’s understanding of himself and the world around him.James Burke examines eight periods in history when our view of the world shifted dramatically:In the eleventh century, when extraordinary discoveries were made by Spanish crusadersIn fourteenth-century Florence, where perspective in painting emergedIn the fifteenth century, when the advent of the printing press shook the foundations of an oral societyIn the sixteenth century, when gunnery developments triggered the birth of modern scienceIn the early eighteenth century, when hot English summers brought on the Industrial RevolutionIn the battlefield surgery stations of the French revolutionary armies, where people first became statisticsIn the nineteenth century, when the discovery of dinosaur fossils led to the theory of evolutionIn the 1820s, when electrical experiments heralded the end of scientific certaintyBased on the popular television documentary series, The Day the Universe Changed is a bestselling history that challenges the reader to decide whether there is absolute knowledge to discover—or whether the universe is “ultimately what we say it is.”“A masterful job. The result is a fascinating, focused view that boggles the mind.” —Charleston Evening Post