How the Scientific Revolution transformed the way humans understand the natural world. Wyman examines the institutional, economic, and cultural conditions that made the revolution possible — and argues it was less sudden and more contested than textbooks suggest.
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Highlights
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The Scientific Revolution was a social phenomenon, not just an intellectual one
Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton didn't work in isolation — they depended on patronage networks, printing technology, correspondence circles, and new institutions like the Royal Society.
The relationship between science and religion was collaboration, not conflict
Most early scientists were devout Christians who saw studying nature as studying God's creation. The warfare model of science vs. religion is a 19th-century invention that distorts the historical record.