The Interlopers

"According to a standard, long-running account of the rise of science, the "scientific revolution" brought about by genius figures like Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton was a revolution in thought. It was the result of a disciplining of thought that opened the mind to the order and patterns in nature. Much of the scholarly pushback against this story focuses on expanding the cast of characters beyond the geniuses to include artisans, craftsmen, medical practitioners, sailors, tradesmen and other non-elites who contributed to the development of the scientific mindset. The author rejects the emphasis on cognitive orderliness and discipline that the standard account and its detractors share"--