Want to know what books Matthew Cobb recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Matthew Cobb's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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William E. Burrows | 4.10
This New Ocean is a masterful major history of the space age, beautifully written, with exciting ideas and concepts, told by a man who has spent most of his adult life studying the field. The book explores a world that, until the middle of this century, he was only able to look at from a great distance.Burrows's several research trips to Russia have yielded a great deal of new information about the Soviet space programs, and he is the first to document the internecine warfare between the designers and their bureaus -- and the destructive polices that this system imposed, which finally caused... more This New Ocean is a masterful major history of the space age, beautifully written, with exciting ideas and concepts, told by a man who has spent most of his adult life studying the field. The book explores a world that, until the middle of this century, he was only able to look at from a great distance.Burrows's several research trips to Russia have yielded a great deal of new information about the Soviet space programs, and he is the first to document the internecine warfare between the designers and their bureaus -- and the destructive polices that this system imposed, which finally caused the program to collapse. This New Ocean is the first literate, comprehensive, international narrative of the exploration of space. less 
Matthew CobbThe book contains a good account of the huge advances the Russians made, which became obvious as they put the first man in space. (Source)
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"There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it." With this provocative and apparently paradoxical claim, Steven Shapin begins his bold vibrant exploration of the origins of the modern scientific worldview.
"Shapin's account is informed, nuanced, and articulated with clarity. . . . This is not to attack or devalue science but to reveal its richness as the human endeavor that it most surely is. . . .Shapin's book is an impressive achievement."—David C. Lindberg, Science
"Shapin has used the crucial 17th century as a platform for... more "There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it." With this provocative and apparently paradoxical claim, Steven Shapin begins his bold vibrant exploration of the origins of the modern scientific worldview.
"Shapin's account is informed, nuanced, and articulated with clarity. . . . This is not to attack or devalue science but to reveal its richness as the human endeavor that it most surely is. . . .Shapin's book is an impressive achievement."—David C. Lindberg, Science
"Shapin has used the crucial 17th century as a platform for presenting the power of science-studies approaches. At the same time, he has presented the period in fresh perspective."—Chronicle of Higher Education
"Timely and highly readable . . . A book which every scientist curious about our predecessors should read."—Trevor Pinch, New Scientist
"It's hard to believe that there could be a more accessible, informed or concise account of how it [the scientific revolution], and we have come to this. The Scientific Revolution should be a set text in all the disciplines. And in all the indisciplines, too."—Adam Phillips, London Review of Books
"Shapin's treatise on the currents that engendered modern science is a combination of history and philosophy of science for the interested and educated layperson."—Publishers Weekly
"Superlative, accessible, and engaging. . . . Absolute must-reading."—Robert S. Frey, Bridges
"This vibrant historical exploration of the origins of modern science argues that in the 1600s science emerged from a variety of beliefs, practices, and influences. . . . This history reminds us that diversity is part of any intellectual endeavor."—Choice
"Most readers will conclude that there was indeed something dramatic enough to be called the Scientific Revolution going on, and that this is an excellent book about it."—Anthony Gottlieb, The New York Times Book Review
less Matthew CobbShapin describes what happened during the scientific revolution, but it’s above all a discussion of the literature, the historiography. (Source)
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In Ways of Knowing, John V. Pickstone provides a new and accessible framework for understanding science, technology, and medicine (STM) in the West from the Renaissance to the present. Pickstone's approach has four key features. First, he synthesizes the long-term histories and philosophies of disciplines that are normally studied separately. Second, he dissects STM into specific ways of knowing—natural history, analysis, and experimentalism—with separate but interlinked elements. Third, he explores these ways of knowing as forms of work related to our various technologies for making,... more In Ways of Knowing, John V. Pickstone provides a new and accessible framework for understanding science, technology, and medicine (STM) in the West from the Renaissance to the present. Pickstone's approach has four key features. First, he synthesizes the long-term histories and philosophies of disciplines that are normally studied separately. Second, he dissects STM into specific ways of knowing—natural history, analysis, and experimentalism—with separate but interlinked elements. Third, he explores these ways of knowing as forms of work related to our various technologies for making, mending, and destroying. And finally, he relates scientific and technical knowledges to popular understandings and to politics.
Covering an incredibly wide range of subjects, from minerals and machines to patients and pharmaceuticals, and from experimental physics to genetic engineering, Pickstone's Ways of Knowing challenges the reader to reexamine traditional conceptualizations of the history, philosophy, and social studies of science, technology, and medicine. less Matthew CobbA lot of what I saw as the classic structure of scientific research is a description of three decades in the second half of the 20th century. (Source)
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