Research Catalog

Newton and the origin of civilization

Title
Newton and the origin of civilization / Jed Z. Buchwald & Mordechai Feingold.
Author
Buchwald, Jed Z.
Publication
Princeton ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, ©2013.

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TextUse in library JFF 16-1617Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Additional Authors
Feingold, Mordechai.
Description
ix, 528 pages : illustrations; 26 cm
Summary
Isaac Newton's Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, published in 1728, one year after the great man's death, unleashed a storm of controversy. And for good reason. The book presents a drastically revised timeline for ancient civilizations, contracting Greek history by five hundred years and Egypt's by a millennium. Newton and the Origin of Civilization tells the story of how one of the most celebrated figures in the history of mathematics, optics, and mechanics came to apply his unique ways of thinking to problems of history, theology, and mythology, and of how his radical ideas produced an uproar that reverberated in Europe's learned circles throughout the eighteenth century and beyond. Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold reveal the manner in which Newton strove for nearly half a century to rectify universal history by reading ancient texts through the lens of astronomy, and to create a tight theoretical system for interpreting the evolution of civilization on the basis of population dynamics. It was during Newton's earliest years at Cambridge that he developed the core of his singular method for generating and working with trustworthy knowledge, which he applied to his study of the past with the same rigor he brought to his work in physics and mathematics. Drawing extensively on Newton's unpublished papers and a host of other primary sources, Buchwald and Feingold reconcile Isaac Newton the rational scientist with Newton the natural philosopher, alchemist, theologian, and chronologist of ancient history."--Jacket.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Biography.
  • History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 489-514) and index.
Contents
Troubled Senses -- Troubled Numbers -- Erudition and Chronology in Seventeenth-Century England -- Isaac Newton on Prophecies and Idolatry -- Aberrant Numbers : The Propagation of Mankind before and after the Deluge -- Newtonian History -- Text and Testimony -- Interpreting Words -- Publication and Reaction -- The War on Newton in England -- The War on Newton in France -- The Demise of Chronology -- Evidence and History -- Appendix A: Signs, Conventions, Dating, and Definitions -- Appendix B: Newton's Computational Methods -- Appendix C: Commented Extracts from Newton's MS Calculations -- Appendix D: Placing Colures on the Original Star Globe -- Appendix E: Hesiod, Thales, and Stellar Risings and Settings.
Call Number
JFF 16-1617
ISBN
  • 9780691154787
  • 0691154783
LCCN
  • 2012024733
  • 40021683162
OCLC
792880975
Author
Buchwald, Jed Z.
Title
Newton and the origin of civilization / Jed Z. Buchwald & Mordechai Feingold.
Imprint
Princeton ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, ©2013.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 489-514) and index.
Chronological Term
1600-1699
1600-talet
Added Author
Feingold, Mordechai.
Other Standard Identifier
40021683162
Research Call Number
JFF 16-1617
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