Iwan Rhys Morus, ed.,”The Oxford Illustrated History of Science” (Oxford UP, 2017)

What is science?

A seemingly profound, yet totally ridiculous question to try and answer. Yet, when Oxford University Press reached out to the brilliant scholar of Victorian science, Iwan Rhys Morris, they were tapping the right man for the job on the shoulder. He designed, contributed, and edited The Oxford Illustrated History of Science (Oxford University Press, 2017) which was published earlier this year. He assembled an all-star team of specialists with backgrounds in a variety fields in this history of science. His simple yet complex answer to the question I just posed is: science is humanity. Without humanity, there would be no science. No Newton, no Darwin, and no Dr. Who. This book is both conventional and not, sweeping yet focused, and really fun to read as both a reference source and as a piece of world history. Join me, J.N. Campbell and for podcasts to come, my colleague Steve Rooney, as we host new segments for New Books in Science. We will ask probing questions, and of course, we hope you enjoy our rapid fire installment at the end! Here is the first installment with my guest, Iwan Morris. Enjoy!

J. N. Campbell is an independent scholar and writer in Houston, Texas. He is the co-author with Steven M. Rooney of How Aspirin Entered Our Medicine Cabinet (Springer, 2017), which can be found on Amazon. They have a second book entitled, Numb: A Chemical History of Opioid Epidemic, which is due out in 2018. He has written for the International Journal of the History of Sport, Reviews in History, and is a featured writer for Good Grit Magazine. After receiving an M.A. in History from the University of Kentucky, he fashions himself as a life-long student of history.

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