The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself, by Daniel J. Boorstin, is a popular history of human discovery. It was first published in 1983 and is the first of a trilogy, being followed by The Creators and The Seekers. Boorstin’s approach is primarily biographical, focusing on exceptional individuals and the discoveries they made. The volume is divided into four books: Time, The Earth and the Seas, Nature, and Society. These are further subdivided into fifteen parts and eighty-two subsections.

In his brief introduction, “A Personal Note to the Reader,” Boorstin writes “My hero is Man the Discoverer.” He posits that the world as we now see and experience it “had to be opened for us by countless Columbuses.” This is their story, as well as the story of the obstacles they faced.

In Book One (Time), Boorstin says that “The first grand discovery was time, the landscape of experience.” This discovery first allowed us to make measurements outside the cycles of nature. He describes the Babylonian lunar calendar, the Egyptian innovation of the 365-day solar calendar and the Julian and Gregorian reforms which followed. He also examines the development of both astrology and astronomy, and explains how the former was discredited, as were other attempts at divination. Much of the space in this section is devoted to the development of the clock, from hourglasses and water clocks to sophisticated mechanical timepieces. Boorstin also discusses the marine clock and the method of measuring longitude developed by John Harrison, as well as the clocks presented to the Emperor of China by the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci. The book ends with an account of Chinese and Japanese attempts to reproduce this technology and create clocks of their own.

Book Two (The Earth and the Seas) begins with a discussion of the importance of sacred mountains in various ancient cultures, followed by humanity’s attempts to reproduce the mountain in structures such as ziggurats, pyramids, stupas, and other primarily religious structures. This is followed by a history of the development of geography and mathematics, the contributions of Aristotle and Ptolemy, the beginnings of cartography, and—in one of the most controversial sections of the book—the ways in which progress in the sciences was hampered by Christian dogma. Boorstin examines the different reasons for travel in the ancient and medieval worlds: pilgrimage, conquest, and trade. He then considers the careers of the great explorers: Marco Polo, Prince Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Balboa, Magellan, and Captain James Cook. He remarks as well on advances in printing and cartography, including the work of Mercator.

Book Three (Nature) is concerned with the scientific investigation of nature. This begins with the heliocentric system of Copernicus who, Boorstin points out, was a contemporary of Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon, the “prophets of Protestantism,” anti-intellectuals who were hostile to his discoveries. The Catholic Church was, at least initially, more sophisticated and tolerant in its approach. Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo are also discussed, with particular emphasis on the development of the telescope—one of the “few crucial inventions” Boorstin regards as vital to the story he has to tell, along with the clock, the printing press, the microscope, and the compass. There is a section on anatomy and medicine, with particular focus on the work of Edward Tyson. There is also a survey of mathematics, which highlights the contributions of Father Marin Mersenne and Sir Isaac Newton. Book Three discusses the Linnaean classification system and ends with Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Book Four (Society) looks at how knowledge is retained...