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Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination
An engrossing history of the voyages of exploration that ignited curiosity about nature and gave birth to modern science. When Columbus first returned to Spain from the Caribbean, he dazzled King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with exotic parrots, tropical flowers, and bits of gold. Inspired by the promise of riches, countless seafarers poured out of the Iberian Peninsula and wider Europe in search of spices, treasure, and land. Many returned with strange tales of the New World. Curiosity began to percolate through Europe as the New World’s people, animals, and plants ruptured prior assumptions about the biblical description of creation. The Church, long fearful of challenges to its authority, could no longer suppress the mantra “Dare to know!” Noblemen began collecting cabinets of curiosities; soon others went from collecting to examining natural objects with fresh eyes. Observation led to experiments; competing conclusions triggered debates. The foundations for the natural sciences were laid as questions became more multifaceted and answers became more complex. Carl Linneaus developed a classification system and sent students around the globe looking for specimens. Museums, botanical gardens, and philosophical societies turned their attention to nature. National governments undertook explorations of the Pacific. Eminent historian Joyce Appleby vividly recounts the explorers’ triumphs and mishaps, including Magellan’s violent death in the Philippines; the miserable trek of the “new Argonauts” across the Andes on their mission to determine the true shape of the earth; and how two brilliant scientists, Alexander Humboldt and Charles Darwin, traveled to the Americas for evidence to confirm their hypotheses about the earth and its inhabitants. Drawing on detailed eyewitness accounts, Appleby also tells of the turmoil created in the all societies touched by the explorations. This sweeping, global story imbues the Age of Discovery with fresh meaning, elegantly charting its stimulation of the natural sciences, which ultimately propelled Western Europe toward modernity. 20 illustrations
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 14, 2013
30 people are currently reading
489 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Appleby
114 books45 followersJoyce Oldham Appleby, Ph.D. (Claremont Graduate School, 1966; B.A., Stanford University, 1950), is professor of history at University of California, Los Angeles. She previously taught at San Diego State University, 1967–1981. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993, and was president of the Organization of American Historians (1991) and the American Historical Association (1997).
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 23, 2013
The premise of this work, that the European encounter with the new world changed not only what was known, but how it was known, and the sorts of questions that could be asked, is interesting. Sadly, the execution is flawed in significant ways.
The last chapter, on Alexander Humboldt and Charles Darwin, is easily the best. Here, Appleby's writing flows well, and the narrative arc is clear. In earlier chapters, however, there are frequent repetitions (e.g., that Magellan's expedition was whittled down to two ships, of which one was then lost, appears twice, as does Waldseemuller's responsibility for assigning 'America' as the name of the newly described continents, and Hans Sloan's collection's role in the formation of the British Museum).
More troubling are downright errors: a reviewer on Amazon noted that she attributes a heliocentric solar system to Ptolemy and makes Louis Pasteur a Nobel prize-winner. To these, I could add that she has Philip II succeed to the throne of Spain on the death of Charles I in 1554 (p. 40), when this actually happened on abdication of his father, in 1555, with the latter dying in 1558. Other errors are in the realm of typos (e.g., Leopoldino for Academia Leopoldina, p. 103, with no entry in the index).
Appleby responded to the Amazon review, regretting the two errors mentioned there, but says
[She then modestly gives her own book five stars.]
I have to disagree. Several of the errors are germane to the argument. She calls Francis Bacon (d. 1626) and Gottfried Leibniz (b. 1646) "contemporaries" on p. 117, in describing their views as similar. But this is in the course of a larger argument that significant change occurred between the beginning of 17th century and its end.
She ponders whether Buffon or Linnaeus knew about "the numerical sequences in flower petals and pinecones that the thirteenth-century Italian Fibonacci had found" (p.152) As far as I was able to find the answer is clearly no, since applying the formula to plants was the work, apparently, of Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson in the twentieth century, not Fibonacci who was responsible only for the mathematical formula. Fibonacci's own application to nature related the sequence to the reproduction of rabbits. For a work tracing the evolution of a scientific perspective, this hardly seems trivial.
The wording quoted is also sadly typical of the imprecision of language throughout this book. There are no numerical sequences in plants; the sequences can be used to describe the plants. Similarly we hear that the closing years of the fifteenth century were "so glorious that the Italians gave it a special name, the Quattrocento"(p. 19) when of course, that is just shortening the Italian for "fourteen hundreds" down to "four hundreds." Spain's trade lagged behind Portugal's because the former lacked the "fueling stations" of the latter (p. 56) What this means for sailing ships is not clear.
Strangest of all is this paragraph:
When was that golden age?
This book seems aimed at an audience that will perhaps enjoy its lightness of tone, and occasional flipness ("Columbus was the original Johnny Appleseed!"), but I believe a popular audience ought to be able to expect better from professional historians. Errors in the book extend even to the author biography, where Appleby is described as "a former president of the American History Association." That the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians both elected her their president suggests that Dr Appleby is capable of first-rate history. Of that ability, there are but glimmers here.
The last chapter, on Alexander Humboldt and Charles Darwin, is easily the best. Here, Appleby's writing flows well, and the narrative arc is clear. In earlier chapters, however, there are frequent repetitions (e.g., that Magellan's expedition was whittled down to two ships, of which one was then lost, appears twice, as does Waldseemuller's responsibility for assigning 'America' as the name of the newly described continents, and Hans Sloan's collection's role in the formation of the British Museum).
More troubling are downright errors: a reviewer on Amazon noted that she attributes a heliocentric solar system to Ptolemy and makes Louis Pasteur a Nobel prize-winner. To these, I could add that she has Philip II succeed to the throne of Spain on the death of Charles I in 1554 (p. 40), when this actually happened on abdication of his father, in 1555, with the latter dying in 1558. Other errors are in the realm of typos (e.g., Leopoldino for Academia Leopoldina, p. 103, with no entry in the index).
Appleby responded to the Amazon review, regretting the two errors mentioned there, but says
The other criticisms of Critic ManDevil1942 are matters of interpretation and emphasis. More significant they are not germane to my account of how New World discoveries liberated Europeans' curiosity about natural phenomena which in the ensuing four centuries turned an inward society outward. Readers can trust this central narrative of Shores of Knowledge.
[She then modestly gives her own book five stars.]
I have to disagree. Several of the errors are germane to the argument. She calls Francis Bacon (d. 1626) and Gottfried Leibniz (b. 1646) "contemporaries" on p. 117, in describing their views as similar. But this is in the course of a larger argument that significant change occurred between the beginning of 17th century and its end.
She ponders whether Buffon or Linnaeus knew about "the numerical sequences in flower petals and pinecones that the thirteenth-century Italian Fibonacci had found" (p.152) As far as I was able to find the answer is clearly no, since applying the formula to plants was the work, apparently, of Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson in the twentieth century, not Fibonacci who was responsible only for the mathematical formula. Fibonacci's own application to nature related the sequence to the reproduction of rabbits. For a work tracing the evolution of a scientific perspective, this hardly seems trivial.
The wording quoted is also sadly typical of the imprecision of language throughout this book. There are no numerical sequences in plants; the sequences can be used to describe the plants. Similarly we hear that the closing years of the fifteenth century were "so glorious that the Italians gave it a special name, the Quattrocento"(p. 19) when of course, that is just shortening the Italian for "fourteen hundreds" down to "four hundreds." Spain's trade lagged behind Portugal's because the former lacked the "fueling stations" of the latter (p. 56) What this means for sailing ships is not clear.
Strangest of all is this paragraph:
Sahagun's native draftsmen in Mexico drew unusual life forms such as the axolotl, a salamander-like amphibian whose capacity to regenerate parts of its body has made it a staple of biological studies ever since. A unique specimen from the New World, axolotl suggests that once human beings had the ability to regenerate limbs. (p. 38)
When was that golden age?
This book seems aimed at an audience that will perhaps enjoy its lightness of tone, and occasional flipness ("Columbus was the original Johnny Appleseed!"), but I believe a popular audience ought to be able to expect better from professional historians. Errors in the book extend even to the author biography, where Appleby is described as "a former president of the American History Association." That the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians both elected her their president suggests that Dr Appleby is capable of first-rate history. Of that ability, there are but glimmers here.
October 14, 2013
Appleby's book is fluff history that doesn't live up to its title. It only partially focuses on the stated topic of the New World's effect on Europe's scientific imagination. There are plenty of digressions that serve only to inform the reader of Appleby's opinion on various aspects of culture or religion. The introduction is flat-out boring. Appleby has a good number of interesting anecdotes but apparently forgot to deploy them in the section in which readers decide whether to continue reading. Also, she gives very little narrative evidence for her conclusions. One must trust her intuition, I suppose.
One particular pet peeve is her false dichotomy of Christian dogmatism vs. scientific enlightenment. She proof texts condemnations of "curiosity," without also considering that what naturalistic curiosity existed in Europe did so precisely in many of those scholastic contexts that she characterizes as repressive. Somehow the Christian adoption of pagan texts (Galen, Aristotle) mostly transmitted from Islam is evidence of Christian narrowness. Also, the explorers and naturalists she credits with bringing new knowledge were all Christians of various sorts. Nor were their discoveries rejected by Christians after a period of absorption. Finally, I wonder whether generational conservatism in the academy isn't just a fact of life. I find it ironic that Appleby herself co-authored Telling the Truth About History, a reactionary book that painted all the theorists and philosophical trends of the latter 20th century as out to destroy history. Maybe she's a closet Christian.
One particular pet peeve is her false dichotomy of Christian dogmatism vs. scientific enlightenment. She proof texts condemnations of "curiosity," without also considering that what naturalistic curiosity existed in Europe did so precisely in many of those scholastic contexts that she characterizes as repressive. Somehow the Christian adoption of pagan texts (Galen, Aristotle) mostly transmitted from Islam is evidence of Christian narrowness. Also, the explorers and naturalists she credits with bringing new knowledge were all Christians of various sorts. Nor were their discoveries rejected by Christians after a period of absorption. Finally, I wonder whether generational conservatism in the academy isn't just a fact of life. I find it ironic that Appleby herself co-authored Telling the Truth About History, a reactionary book that painted all the theorists and philosophical trends of the latter 20th century as out to destroy history. Maybe she's a closet Christian.
February 6, 2018
As with her previous books, Appleby's history of European science seen from the angle of discovery and colonization is lucid and well-organized. It will be of interest to anyone who wants a broad and easy overview of the period from Columbus to Darwin, whether they are high school students or nonfiction buffs. The book works chronologically, walking through the biographies of the best-known thinkers from each period. Appleby expertly cherry-picks the literature to provide good summaries from well-respected sources. Although the focus is on European exploration, there are enough digressions into astronomy and chemistry to make this more than just an account geography and voyaging -- although note that philology and religious studies are not covered. Overall, Appleby's book went down easy and filled in several gaps in my knowledge. It made great in-flight reading. Those looking for an introduction to this topic, or something to string all the pieces together will enjoy this well-written volume, but people wanting to go deeper into the literature or already know something about it will be better served looking elsewhere.
April 10, 2018
Thorough and thought provoking in the connection that author makes between the voyages of discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries and the Scientific Revolution that began, with tentative steps, in the 17th. Some chapters are better than others, keep going if you despair of all the detail on the Spaniards that you know well, because the best chapter is the last one on Humboldt and Darwin.
Last year I read The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, which I found a spectacular read. The writing here is convoluted at times, but I plodded through and am glad I did.
Last year I read The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, which I found a spectacular read. The writing here is convoluted at times, but I plodded through and am glad I did.
May 26, 2022
อ่านไม่ยาก เป็น ปวศ ภูมิปัญญาที่มองจากสายตาตะวันตกแทบล้วนๆ ผู้เขียนเล่าให้ฟังว่านับตั้งแต่โคลัมบัส 'ค้นพบ' อเมริกา โลกตะวันตกค่อยๆ เปลี่ยนไปสู่สังคมแห่งความสงสัยใคร่รู้ต่อโลกธรรมชาติได้อย่างไร แต่ละบทเล่าถึงตัวละครต่างๆ ที่มีส่วนสร้างความรู้เกี่ยวกับโลกธรรมชาติในหลายมิติ ชอบบทว่าด้วยนักสะสมและนักธรรมชาติวิทยามือสมัครเล่นที่ไม่ค่อยถูกพูดถึงนักในเรื่องเล่ากระแสหลัก อ่านเพลินๆ ได้ แต่ในแง่ข้อเท็จจริงทาง ปวศ ก็อย่าเพิ่งเชื่อมากขนาดนั้น
September 19, 2024
Joyce Appleby's narrative provided my college students with a rich and complex web of events, people, and lines of scientific inquiry to try to understand across four centuries of European encounters with global "others."
March 20, 2018
While it is full of information, it doesn't tell a story. It's more like reading an encyclopedia than a narrative.
June 23, 2018
Good story and generally nice read but occasionally a little boring or summative.
July 12, 2018
Tried to do too much and ends up cursory and superficial.
September 19, 2014
The book is too short to adequately illustrate Appleby's premise that "Columbus had found something far more valuable than the Spice Islands he had sought. Retrospectively, the most significant consequence of the age of discovery is the awakening of Europeans' curiosity about the world in which they lived." (p. 257)
Instead, the book offers a very abbreviated history of the scientific projects of the Enlightenment. One could use the book as a guide to fuller accounts, but it lacks a bibliography and many of the notes reference secondary sources.
What makes it readable are many entertaining anecdotes -- Linnaeus believed that Sweden was so old and remote that it had escaped the confusion of languages during the construction of the Tower of Babel; Parmentier's promotion of potatoes as food after having been forced to eat them as a prisoner of war in Prussia; Columbus making his first acquaintance of pineapples at a cannibal feas; and so on.
Appleby does pay a great deal of attention to the publishing history of the great monographs and the beginnings of scientific societies and correspondence and journals.
Instead, the book offers a very abbreviated history of the scientific projects of the Enlightenment. One could use the book as a guide to fuller accounts, but it lacks a bibliography and many of the notes reference secondary sources.
What makes it readable are many entertaining anecdotes -- Linnaeus believed that Sweden was so old and remote that it had escaped the confusion of languages during the construction of the Tower of Babel; Parmentier's promotion of potatoes as food after having been forced to eat them as a prisoner of war in Prussia; Columbus making his first acquaintance of pineapples at a cannibal feas; and so on.
Appleby does pay a great deal of attention to the publishing history of the great monographs and the beginnings of scientific societies and correspondence and journals.
December 8, 2014
This book is a high level overview of much of the exploration and scientific accomplishments resulting from the discovery of the Americas. I would have appreciated a much larger book in order to include more depth for each of the individuals addressed. With probably more than a hundred different individuals discussed in such a short space (257 pages), it is hard to feel as if I have heard more than the faintest gloss-over of their lives and accomplishments.
Additional space would have also allowed the author to address her central thesis more thoroughly instead of leaving it to the reader to try to discern which components actually provided evidence to her thesis.
Additional space would have also allowed the author to address her central thesis more thoroughly instead of leaving it to the reader to try to discern which components actually provided evidence to her thesis.
January 25, 2014
Very enlightening but heavy because the book covers such a wide swath of history. Focuses on the influence of New World voyages' discoveries, the spread of news about them and the adoption of new foods, practices and scientific ideas based on those findings and items collected from the New World.
October 23, 2013
I loved it really, science is my mistress though.
Want to read
November 9, 2013Saw a great interview with Joyce Appleby today. What a bright woman! This is in a top reading list!
March 1, 2014
Briefly about the discovery of the new world, mostly a history of science/exploration after that. Not what I expected.
May 9, 2015
Bailed early. Just could not get interested.
February 9, 2016
Loved 'digging' through history as a novel style
June 24, 2018
I could not get into this one! The first chapter was dry and hard to manage--it didn't inspire me to continue reading at all, despite the potential for an interesting topic.
March 14, 2016
An engrossing history of the voyages of exploration that ignited curiosity about nature and gave birth to modern science
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews