History of Astronomy

by Anton Pannekoek

Well-balanced, carefully reasoned study relates astronomy to political, social conditions of the day. Part I covers ancient astronomy, including Ptolemaic theory; Part II discusses Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, laws of celestial mechanics. Part III covers modern developments up to work of Eddington. Author saw astronomy as an adventure of the mind. Illustrated.

Genres: Science, History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Dutch astronomer and marxist theorist.

He was one of the main theorists of council communism. As a recognized Marxist theorist, Pannekoek was one of the founders of the council communist tendency and a main figure in the radical left in the Netherlands and Germany.

In his scientific work, Pannekoek started studying the distribution of stars through the Milky Way, as well as the structure of our galaxy. Later he became interested in the nature and evolution of stars. Because of these studies, he is considered to be the founder of astrophysics as a separate discipline in the Netherlands.

The Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek at the University of Amsterdam, of which he had been a director, still carries his name.

Reviews

[Twilight O. ☭ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this for my dad because he’s a huge astronomy geek, and I thought it’d be funny to trick him into reading a book by a Marxist who has influenced me so much. It took him FOREVER (literally over a year) to get through the section on pre-modern astronomy, basically before the telescope was invented, but things really picked up past that point. Overall, he seemed pleased with it!

Update, my dad wrote a review:
“In A History of Astronomy, Antonie Pannekoek examines astronomy from prehistory through the 1950s. The first third of the book explains astronomy up to about the beginning of the 11th century and does so in great detail. The middle third moves through the renaissance of science, including the invention of the telescope, Newton’s explanation of gravity, and the beginnings of documented stellar observations. The book's final section explores cosmology and attempts to explain modern observations of our galaxy and the galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

While not necessarily an easy read, this a comprehensive exploration of astronomy from its origins through the middle of the 20th century.”

[J. Boo]

C.S. Lewis references this book in The Discarded Image, "We have recently been reminded how much mathematics, and how good, went to the building of the [medieval European model of the universe]." pg 103

[Sandro Valery Gvaramia · Rating 4 out of 5]

the most convoluted book i’ve ever read

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by Dutch council communist and astronomer Anton Pannekoek this book covers the study of the sky and it's contents from the very beginning. The author starts with Ancient Sumer and goes as far as early radioteloscopy. The most fascinating chapters were those about the period from the fall of Rome until Newton. During this time scientists engaged in all sorts of magical thinking which today seem poetic. Exactly how poetic they were in a time where people could be burned alive for presenting the wrong results is a topic for another book.

[Morgan Goodwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

So rewarding. I love the detail that he covered as he took us from the ancient Babylonians up through the Greeks and the Arabs and the renaissance. He put the theories into both historical context, and identified where they were objectively, true or false. That latter quality, is so often missing in history, and yet with astronomy, there are right answers, and there are also correct conclusions to draw with the knowledge at hand.I loved reading this, and might read it again just to better absorb the concepts and stories.