"The Fabric of the Heavens" is the first in a series of three books, written in the 1960s, that attempt to outline the development of modern scientific thought. This first book deals with astronomy and dynamics, and the union of those two disciplines that created our modern ideas of the universe, forces, motion, etc.

Toulmin and Goodfield begin in ancient Babylon, where highly accurate mathematical techniques were used to calculate the positions of heavenly bodies. They move through several periods of Greek thought, through the medieval period and the flourishing of Islamic scholarship, on through the Renaissance, up to Newton, past Einstein, and on to the middle of the twentieth century. They are careful to show how and why past astronomers and natural philosophers asked the questions they did, why things that today appear to be common sense were inconceivable in the past, and why obviously brilliant people explained the world in ways we now see as misguided.

"The Fabric of the Heavens" is an amazing book, especially because of Toulmin and Goodfield's ability to make complex ideas clear to those of us who aren't physicists or astronomers. I was, however, somewhat dissatisfied near the end. Toulmin and Goodfield, while skilled at explaining the distant past, seem a bit slapdash describing the first half of the twentieth century, and, of course, do not describe the second half at all. The book also has a highly Western focus, probably because cosmological ideas in other parts of the world did not directly affect the development of modern science.

Nevertheless, "The Fabric of the Heavens" is fascinating, well-written, and enjoyable. I highly recommend it.