A01=James Hannam
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Author_James Hannam
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Product details
- ISBN 9781836391128
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 13 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Now in paperback, The Globe traces humanity’s quest to understand the true shape of the Earth. Ancient Greek philosophers identified it as spherical in the fourth century BCE, with this knowledge spreading via Rome, India, and Central Asia. The Catholic Church accepted a round Earth well before Columbus, yet Jesuit missionaries only persuaded the Chinese to abandon their square-earth cosmology in the seventeenth century. Challenging traditional views on intellectual history, The Globe argues that recognising Earth’s spherical nature was humanity’s first major scientific breakthrough. Compelling and thought-provoking, the book explores how this discovery reshaped global perspectives across centuries.
James Hannam is the author of God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (2009). He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and lives in Kent.
