The Moon - Hardcover

David Whitehouse

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 074727228X ISBN 13: 9780747272281

Publisher: Headline Library Hardbacks, 2001

Synopsis

Since the dawn of time, the moon has exerted a tremendous influence over the earth and its inhabitants, both scientifically and artistically. The earliest astronomers expended much energy in their attempts to map the moon and imagine what it must be like to travel there, and globally the moon has a central role in virtually all mythologies, from Amazonian Indians to the ancient Egyptians to the Celts. Poets, painters and musicians have taken the moon as the inspiration for great extraordinary works of art. The myriad of stories - peopled with extraordinary characters like Galileo, the 12th century monk Gervase of Canterbury and Van Eyck - and fascinating science which this tale comprises have now been brought together in this volume.

About this title

About the Author:

Dr David Whitehouse is the BBC's Science Correspondent and also writes regularly for magazines and newspapers such as the New Scientist and the Independent. He has worked for NASA, is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the president of the UK's Society for Popular Astronomy.

Review:

Hard on the heels of the "biography" of the famous Einstein equation E=MC2 comes a similar history, this time of our famous natural satellite. This account of the moon is by an award-winning BBC science correspondent, whose expertise shines through in a wide-ranging and authoritative account, drawing together many disparate threads. Since pre-history, the moon has fascinated man, exerting a tremendous influence over the earth and its inhabitants. It has had a central role for most cultures and their poets, painters and musicians as well as lovers have taken it as a source of inspiration. Whitehouse's book brings together these various aspects in elegant and informed prose, ranging in time from the Moonwatchers of Lascaux and the awe of primitive man, on to Galileo, Van Eyck and Thomas Harriot (an unfairly neglected British moon-scientist), then ultimately the Apollo Missions of the 1970s and 1980s. The result is a rich and unusual survey, one that should please specialists and non-specialists alike. One to observe closely.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline Library Hardbacks
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 074727228X
• ISBN 13: 9780747272281
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320