Flat Earth
Subtitle: the history of an infamous idea
By: Christine Garwood.
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2007
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 436
ISBN-13: 9781405047029
Subjects: Geodesy -- History.; Errors, Scientific.; Religion and science.; Earth -- Figure.
Description: Contrary to popular belief, fostered in countless classrooms across the world, Christopher Columbus was not the first to discover that the earth was round. The idea of a spherical world had been widely accepted in educated circles from as early as the fourth century BC. Yet, bizarrely, it was not until the supposedly more rational nineteenth century that the notion of a flat earth really took hold. Meticulously researched and compellingly readable, Christine Garwood provides the first definitive account of this 'infamous idea'. She explodes the myths surrounding Columbus and the battles between science and religion, explores the wilder shores of flat-earth belief and establishes, without doubt, that the world is most emphatically not flat.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 372-423) and index.