Table Of ContentKnowledge and Power
Knowledge and Power presents and explores science not as something
specifically for scientists, but as an integral part of human civilization, and
traces the development of science through different historical settings from
the Middle Ages through to the Cold War.
Five case studies are examined within this book: the creation of modern
science by Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the medieval Mediterranean; the
global science of the Jesuit order in the early modern world; the relationship
between “modernization” and “westernization” in Russia and Japan from
the late seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century; the role of science in the
European colonization of Africa; and the rivalry in “big science” between
the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Each chapter
includes original documents to further the reader’s understanding, and this
second edition has been enhanced with a selection of new images and a new
chapter on Big Science and the Superpowers during the Cold War.
Since the Middle Ages, people have been working in many civilizations
and cultures to advance knowledge of, and power over, the natural world.
Through a combination of narrative and primary sources, Knowledge and
Power provides students with an understanding of how different cultures
throughout time and across the globe approached science. It is ideal for
students of world history and the history of science.
William E. Burns teaches history at The George Washington University
in Washington, DC. His previous books include The Scientific Revolution
(2001), An Age of Wonders: Prodigies, Politics and Providence in England,
1657–1727 (2002), Science in the Enlightenment (2003), Science and
Technology in Colonial America (2005), and The Scientific Revolution in
Global Perspective (2015).
Knowledge and Power
Science in World History
Second Edition
William E. Burns
Second edition published 2019
by Routledge
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© 2019 William E. Burns
The right of William E. Burns to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Pearson Education, Inc. 2011
Published by Routledge 2016
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Burns, William E., 1959– author.
Title: Knowledge and power : science in world history / William E.
Burns.
Other titles: Science in world history
Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018011310 |
Subjects: LCSH: Science—History. | Science—Cross-cultural studies.
Classification: LCC Q125 .B949 2018 | DDC 509—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011310
ISBN: 978-1-138-63765-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-63766-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20329-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Dedicated, once again, to Evelyn
Contents
List of Figures viii
Introduction 1
1 Science in the Medieval Mediterranean 15
2 The Jesuits and World Science, 1540–1773 49
3 Westernization, “Modernization,” and Science in
Russia and Japan, 1684–1860s 76
4 Africa in the Age of Imperialism and Nationalism,
1860–1960 103
5 Big Science, the Superpowers, and the Cold War 129
Epilogue 153
Bibliography 156
Index 162
Figures
1.1 Astrolabe, Arabic navigational instrument, thirteenth century 19
1.2 Avicenna’s Canon 21
1.3 Roger Bacon (ca. 1220–1292), English philosopher
and scientist 29
2.1 The Quadrant at the Ancient Observatory, Beijing, China 55
2.2 Varieties of the Cinchona species (quinine) 63
2.3 Diagram showing the interconnectedness of fire inside the
earth, featured in Mundus Subterraneus 73
3.1 Peter the Great’s small boat 78
3.2 Kaitaishinsho, Japanese translation of Dutch anatomy book
Ontleedkundige Tafelen 91
4.1 Map of the West Coast of Africa, by Africanus Horton,
Sierra Leone 111
4.2 Anatomy class (at Gordon College?), Sudan, Africa 120
5.1 Soviet propaganda poster for science over religion, 1967 130
5.2 University of California Radiation Laboratory 132
5.3 Technicians close hatches on Gemini 11 spacecraft during
countdown 143
5.4 Soviet Soyuz Spacecraft in orbit as seen from American
Apollo spacecraft 145
Introduction
On September 1, 1644, an eclipse of the Sun was visible in Beijing, the
capital of China. It was a time of great uncertainty, given the fall of the
Ming dynasty and its replacement by the Qing, the dynasty that had recently
accomplished the “Great Enterprise” of conquering the Empire. The Qing,
who would rule China into the twentieth century, were originally the leaders
of a people known as Manchus, from China’s northeast, whom most Chi-
nese would have perceived as barbarians. Like other Chinese departments
of the Chinese government, the Bureau of Astronomy, whose job it was to
predict the time, extent, and duration of the eclipse, had to prove itself to its
new masters. Predicting the precise time and duration was a difficult chal-
lenge requiring extremely complex and demanding calculations.
The board had two branches calculating the eclipse, the traditional Chi-
nese branch and another branch that used methods developed in the Islamic
world. But there was a third entity making calculations, more foreigners,
these from lands far to the west of China. The mysterious “Black Robes,”
Jesuit missionaries from Europe, claimed both to know the only true reli-
gion and to possess superior methods of astronomical calculation. In their
minds the stakes were even higher, as they hoped that accurate calculations
would incline the new rulers’ minds favorably to their religion. Their leader,
Johann Adam Schall von Bell, known to the Chinese as Tang Ruowang, sub-
mitted a petition to the Manchu regent, Dorgon, accompanied by predic-
tions of the eclipse. He asked that the Bureau test the accuracy of the Jesuits’
predictions along with their own, a request Dorgon granted.
The great day arrived. The grand secretary, along with Schall von Bell,
and officials from the Bureau of Astronomy made their way to the observa-
tory. The Jesuit calculations proved the most accurate, and Schall von Bell
won what had always eluded the Jesuits in China, an appointment in the
Chinese bureaucracy. He was the new head of the Bureau of Astronomy, a
position Jesuits would hold with one interruption until 1774.
That day in 1644 saw the coming together of three major scientific tradi-
tions, the Chinese, Islamic, and Western. It is one of the many encounters
and conflicts out of which the modern world of science has been created.
