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The Globe: How the Earth Became Round
From Babylon to Columbus and beyond, a journey across millennia and—yes—the globe exploring how we came to understand our spherical planet.
The Globe tells the story of humanity’s quest to discover the form of the that the Earth is round and not flat. Philosophers in ancient Greece deduced the true shape of the Earth in the fourth century BCE; the Romans passed the knowledge to India, from where it spread to Baghdad and Central Asia. In early medieval Europe, Christians debated the matter, but long before the time of Columbus, the Catholic Church had accepted that Earth is a ball. However, it wasn’t until the seventeenth century that Jesuit missionaries finally convinced the Chinese that their traditional square-earth cosmology was mistaken. An accessible challenge to long-established beliefs about the history of ideas, The Globe shows how the realization that our planet is a sphere deserves to be considered the first great scientific achievement.
The Globe tells the story of humanity’s quest to discover the form of the that the Earth is round and not flat. Philosophers in ancient Greece deduced the true shape of the Earth in the fourth century BCE; the Romans passed the knowledge to India, from where it spread to Baghdad and Central Asia. In early medieval Europe, Christians debated the matter, but long before the time of Columbus, the Catholic Church had accepted that Earth is a ball. However, it wasn’t until the seventeenth century that Jesuit missionaries finally convinced the Chinese that their traditional square-earth cosmology was mistaken. An accessible challenge to long-established beliefs about the history of ideas, The Globe shows how the realization that our planet is a sphere deserves to be considered the first great scientific achievement.
376 pages, Hardcover
Published October 17, 2023
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About the author
James Hannam
12 books47 followersDr James Hannam is a British historian of science who lives in Kent with his wife and two children. James majored in Physics at Oxford and has a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge.
His articles have boon published in magazines such as The Spectator, New Scientist, Standpoint and First Things.
His articles have boon published in magazines such as The Spectator, New Scientist, Standpoint and First Things.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 21, 2023
Around the world in several millennia…
The fact that the Earth is a globe is something we all take for granted today. Mankind has been circumnavigating it by sea for hundreds of years, and most of us, even if we haven’t gone all the way round, have gone far enough at some point that we’ve had to change the time on our watches or had to pack clothes for a different temperature zone. And if none of that is proof enough, we have the pictures – the amazing photos taken by astronauts of our beautiful planet seen from space. In this book, James Hannam starts out by showing that, prior to these developments, the idea of the Earth as a globe was counter-intuitive – the physical world as observed by the earliest societies looked and behaved as if it were flat. He sets out to show the leaps of imagination that led early scientists and philosophers to speculate that the world was in fact round, how over the centuries they found proof for their theories, and how their ideas spread from culture to culture. He has two main aims: to claim the credit for Aristotle for being the first to come up with a coherent (if wrong) theory of the Globe; and to show that the medieval European world, including the Catholic church, were fully aware of the Globe, and were not the ignorant, anti-science society they have been portrayed as.
Hannam’s style is excellent for readers unfamiliar with the ideas he discusses. He uses simple sentence structures, entirely free of jargon, and without the complex clauses so often beloved by academic writers, but which often make the very act of understanding the text harder than understanding the ideas they are supposed to be explaining. Hannam brings a clarity that makes even difficult questions of science or philosophy easy for the casual reader to follow, and he uses a straightforward timeline that means readers don’t have to know already who came first, the Greeks or the Romans, the Persians or the Babylonians – at every step Hannam will tell us. He assumes almost no knowledge on behalf of his readers, so that everything needed to understand his arguments is included. It is a rare joy to read a factual book that doesn’t require constant flicking to notes or even googling to explain things the highly educated author has incorrectly assumed everyone knows. Hannam is also excellent at sticking to the point – he tells us what we need to know about, for example, Aristotle’s ideas as they relate to the shape of the Earth, but doesn’t give us an additional hundred pages of everything else Aristotle may have thought on every other subject under the sun. The end result of all this is that the book, while packed full of wide-ranging information and complex ideas, is easy to read, understand and digest.
Hannam starts by discussing the world views of early societies and it’s intriguing how similar many of them are. In most cases the world is a disc, (in China, it is square, hence “four corners of the earth”) surrounded by either forests, mountains or ocean, based on what the inhabitants saw as the edge of their own territory. In every case, as far as I gathered, the society in question is based at the centre of the world – hubris seems to be a pretty universal human trait! The home of the gods is nearly always in the sky and the underworld is nearly always a bad place. The planets, sun, moon and stars are often gods and there are elaborate stories in many cultures of how they race back each day to their starting point so that they they’re in the right position to start their daily or nightly traverse of the sky. The earth must be flat because if it were a globe the people on the other side would obviously be upside down and fall off. Aristotle’s great breakthrough was to place the centre of a spherical universe in the centre of a globe-shaped earth, so that, from every other point in the universe, that centre would be “down”. Not correct, obviously, but so much closer to what we now take for granted as the workings of gravity. The many implications of this theory include, firstly, that no society therefore is sited at the centre of the earth (some societies struggled more than others to accept this downgrading of importance); and, secondly, that there might indeed be people and societies “down under”.
Hannam writes interestingly on the nature of knowledge, and on how the definition of “truth” in a scientific sense has been defined and redefined over time. Plato described knowledge as ‘true belief accompanied by a rational account’ and it’s on this basis that Hannam claims the honour for the theory of the Globe for Aristotle. Now we accept that truth must be based on proven reality, but Hannam shows that that’s a relatively modern definition – unsurprisingly, since it is only in relatively modern times that we have had the scientific ability to prove or disprove such theories. He is equally interesting when he shows how knowledge was disseminated throughout the early world, sometimes through peaceful travel and study of other cultures, but often through war, conquest and empires. His contention is that educated people have known the world is round since the times of the Greeks and Romans, and that this knowledge was never lost – that medieval society, including the Roman Catholic Church, had long learned to adapt religious beliefs to cohabit comfortably with scientific knowledge. In fact, much of the science of the medieval period was done by churchmen and others were the main source of disseminating knowledge across cultures.
As always, it’s impossible to cover everything in a factual book in a short review. I found this a fascinating read not just for the central arguments, but for the overview of world societies and how their ideas influenced each other. In a world where ‘truth’ seems to be becoming a disputed commodity, it was also interesting to learn about the philosophies underpinning knowledge and scientific reality. Highly recommended, and, while it’s primarily aimed at adults, I’d say the clarity of the writing means that it would also be a great book for a young person showing an interest in science or history – maybe from about age 14 up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Reaktion Books.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
The fact that the Earth is a globe is something we all take for granted today. Mankind has been circumnavigating it by sea for hundreds of years, and most of us, even if we haven’t gone all the way round, have gone far enough at some point that we’ve had to change the time on our watches or had to pack clothes for a different temperature zone. And if none of that is proof enough, we have the pictures – the amazing photos taken by astronauts of our beautiful planet seen from space. In this book, James Hannam starts out by showing that, prior to these developments, the idea of the Earth as a globe was counter-intuitive – the physical world as observed by the earliest societies looked and behaved as if it were flat. He sets out to show the leaps of imagination that led early scientists and philosophers to speculate that the world was in fact round, how over the centuries they found proof for their theories, and how their ideas spread from culture to culture. He has two main aims: to claim the credit for Aristotle for being the first to come up with a coherent (if wrong) theory of the Globe; and to show that the medieval European world, including the Catholic church, were fully aware of the Globe, and were not the ignorant, anti-science society they have been portrayed as.
Hannam’s style is excellent for readers unfamiliar with the ideas he discusses. He uses simple sentence structures, entirely free of jargon, and without the complex clauses so often beloved by academic writers, but which often make the very act of understanding the text harder than understanding the ideas they are supposed to be explaining. Hannam brings a clarity that makes even difficult questions of science or philosophy easy for the casual reader to follow, and he uses a straightforward timeline that means readers don’t have to know already who came first, the Greeks or the Romans, the Persians or the Babylonians – at every step Hannam will tell us. He assumes almost no knowledge on behalf of his readers, so that everything needed to understand his arguments is included. It is a rare joy to read a factual book that doesn’t require constant flicking to notes or even googling to explain things the highly educated author has incorrectly assumed everyone knows. Hannam is also excellent at sticking to the point – he tells us what we need to know about, for example, Aristotle’s ideas as they relate to the shape of the Earth, but doesn’t give us an additional hundred pages of everything else Aristotle may have thought on every other subject under the sun. The end result of all this is that the book, while packed full of wide-ranging information and complex ideas, is easy to read, understand and digest.
Hannam starts by discussing the world views of early societies and it’s intriguing how similar many of them are. In most cases the world is a disc, (in China, it is square, hence “four corners of the earth”) surrounded by either forests, mountains or ocean, based on what the inhabitants saw as the edge of their own territory. In every case, as far as I gathered, the society in question is based at the centre of the world – hubris seems to be a pretty universal human trait! The home of the gods is nearly always in the sky and the underworld is nearly always a bad place. The planets, sun, moon and stars are often gods and there are elaborate stories in many cultures of how they race back each day to their starting point so that they they’re in the right position to start their daily or nightly traverse of the sky. The earth must be flat because if it were a globe the people on the other side would obviously be upside down and fall off. Aristotle’s great breakthrough was to place the centre of a spherical universe in the centre of a globe-shaped earth, so that, from every other point in the universe, that centre would be “down”. Not correct, obviously, but so much closer to what we now take for granted as the workings of gravity. The many implications of this theory include, firstly, that no society therefore is sited at the centre of the earth (some societies struggled more than others to accept this downgrading of importance); and, secondly, that there might indeed be people and societies “down under”.
Hannam writes interestingly on the nature of knowledge, and on how the definition of “truth” in a scientific sense has been defined and redefined over time. Plato described knowledge as ‘true belief accompanied by a rational account’ and it’s on this basis that Hannam claims the honour for the theory of the Globe for Aristotle. Now we accept that truth must be based on proven reality, but Hannam shows that that’s a relatively modern definition – unsurprisingly, since it is only in relatively modern times that we have had the scientific ability to prove or disprove such theories. He is equally interesting when he shows how knowledge was disseminated throughout the early world, sometimes through peaceful travel and study of other cultures, but often through war, conquest and empires. His contention is that educated people have known the world is round since the times of the Greeks and Romans, and that this knowledge was never lost – that medieval society, including the Roman Catholic Church, had long learned to adapt religious beliefs to cohabit comfortably with scientific knowledge. In fact, much of the science of the medieval period was done by churchmen and others were the main source of disseminating knowledge across cultures.
As always, it’s impossible to cover everything in a factual book in a short review. I found this a fascinating read not just for the central arguments, but for the overview of world societies and how their ideas influenced each other. In a world where ‘truth’ seems to be becoming a disputed commodity, it was also interesting to learn about the philosophies underpinning knowledge and scientific reality. Highly recommended, and, while it’s primarily aimed at adults, I’d say the clarity of the writing means that it would also be a great book for a young person showing an interest in science or history – maybe from about age 14 up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Reaktion Books.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
October 17, 2023
I found it disappointing. Too rushed to bring things to life, digressive, and a bit schoolmasterly.
September 22, 2025
Starts out strong but gets bogged down along the way.
The Globe, by James Hannam, tells the story of how we figured out that the Earth is a globe.
The book starts off citing some ancient achievements in astronomy and astrology: by 2,000 BC the Mesopotamians had realized that the morning and evening stars were the same plant (Venus); they also had developed an 18-year cycle for predicting eclipses of both the Sun and Moon.
The ancient Egyptians, however, never developed a system for predicting eclipses. Their calendar was based on the path of the Sun, and they were the ones who developed the 365-day calendar.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first person to propose the Earth was a globe using scientific reasoning and his findings were the foundation for a spherical shape of the Earth until the Age of Discovery.
The rest of the book is taken up with how different civilizations around the world believed the Earth was shaped. Almost all of them believed some form of flat disc-like world with the sun, moon planets and stars rotating around the Earth contained in some type of dome or multiple domes. This theory was believed by Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, India, Chinese, Judaism, Christianity and Muslims. Hannam then goes into great detail on how each of these cultures formulated their flat Earth theories, and how each one of them fought against the idea of a spherical Earth.
While I learned some new information on the development of the spherical Earth, I thought the book got too bogged down in the religion vs science arguments as empirical evidence of the round Earth proved the flat Earth beliefs were wrong. I believe the whole thing could have been covered much more succinctly.
The Globe, by James Hannam, tells the story of how we figured out that the Earth is a globe.
The book starts off citing some ancient achievements in astronomy and astrology: by 2,000 BC the Mesopotamians had realized that the morning and evening stars were the same plant (Venus); they also had developed an 18-year cycle for predicting eclipses of both the Sun and Moon.
The ancient Egyptians, however, never developed a system for predicting eclipses. Their calendar was based on the path of the Sun, and they were the ones who developed the 365-day calendar.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first person to propose the Earth was a globe using scientific reasoning and his findings were the foundation for a spherical shape of the Earth until the Age of Discovery.
The rest of the book is taken up with how different civilizations around the world believed the Earth was shaped. Almost all of them believed some form of flat disc-like world with the sun, moon planets and stars rotating around the Earth contained in some type of dome or multiple domes. This theory was believed by Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, India, Chinese, Judaism, Christianity and Muslims. Hannam then goes into great detail on how each of these cultures formulated their flat Earth theories, and how each one of them fought against the idea of a spherical Earth.
While I learned some new information on the development of the spherical Earth, I thought the book got too bogged down in the religion vs science arguments as empirical evidence of the round Earth proved the flat Earth beliefs were wrong. I believe the whole thing could have been covered much more succinctly.
April 2, 2026
The Globe: How the Earth Became Round by James Hannam offers a fascinating and accessible exploration of one of humanity’s earliest scientific achievements. Tracing the idea of a spherical Earth from ancient Greece through Rome, India, the Islamic world, and into Europe and Asia, Hannam challenges common misconceptions about when and how this knowledge developed.
What stands out is the book’s ability to connect intellectual history across cultures, showing how ideas were preserved, debated, and refined over centuries. By highlighting the global exchange of knowledge, the narrative underscores the collaborative nature of scientific progress. Insightful and engaging, this work is a valuable contribution to the history of science and will resonate with readers interested in how human understanding evolves over time.
What stands out is the book’s ability to connect intellectual history across cultures, showing how ideas were preserved, debated, and refined over centuries. By highlighting the global exchange of knowledge, the narrative underscores the collaborative nature of scientific progress. Insightful and engaging, this work is a valuable contribution to the history of science and will resonate with readers interested in how human understanding evolves over time.
May 19, 2024
An excellent volume on the surprising fact that the discovery that the earth is a globe was (probably) made only once in ancient Greece, and that knowledge then spread across the rest of the world. Hannam does a great job of explaining likely spread mechanisms and explaining how different cultures absorbed, improved, and dealt with the idea of the Earth being a globe. The science history is sound here, with many footnotes to sources. A thoroughly enjoyable (at least to me) history of an idea that we no longer consider paradoxical, but it was an achievement to discover.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews