"A highly readable history of human ideas, Corben's book traces the development of modern scientific concepts from antiquity to the present. His primary theme is the ultimate triumph of truth over misguided intellectual despotism, both secular and sacred." -Booklist
"For thousands of years, our ancestors pursued the spiritual and intellectual quests of trying to understand the world that surrounds us and the world that lies within . . . We shall trace these . . . ideas through their successes and failures, through brilliant developments obstinately opposed or ignored, the lucky guesses, the incorrect hypotheses strongly clung to, and the personal dangers that were the rewards of many scholars who struggled to understand them . . .

"Our ancestors made serious mistakes in their efforts to understand natural phenomena; they got hung up for centuries on what we see as ridiculous ideas, and carried out research (as we do, even if very careful) with one hand tied by their own prejudices and the other bound by the beliefs of their contemporaries. But they were just as smart as people are today. They did not have the benefit of a modern education, and even now those who have had that opportunity and have not learned from it are back with them in the Dark Ages of superstition, peddling their beliefs in astrology, numerology, and the literal truth of every word in the book of Genesis . . .

"Just as surely as democracy is wary of dictators, so intellectual democracy must be wary of intellectual dictators who destroy freedom of thought in themselves and their own children and would like to do the same thing to others." - FROM THE PREFACE