Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century (Beacon Paperback, 720)

Rating:
Summary: Timely review of the forgotten.
Review: As with much else of western culture and history, the role and importance of exceptional women in science throughout the ages has been, sadly, under-appreciated. This book seeks to address this point. Their achievements have been even more remarkable when one considers the male-dominated societies in which many of them lived. Hypatia herself was a magnificent scientist, as were many others, sadly under-represented in many historical analyses. Hopefully in the future, with our growing awareness of our societys' inherited irrational and unfair bias towards women, anyones place in the history and future of science will become what it should always have been, as scientists, irrespective of gender.

Rating:
Summary: A Woman Scientist's Point of View
Review: I rated this book at one star only because amazon.com doesn't allow a reviewer the option of zero stars. The author of this book is a biochemist -- not a trained historian -- and her amateurism certainly shows, particulary in the early chapters where a competent historian would be careful in the assessment of the historicity of sources. So Alic retails a tradition -- presented as though it has a factual basis -- about Moses and his wife operating a medical school in Egypt. Never mind that there is virtually no evidence independent of the Bible that Moses even existed. Perhaps needless to say that the Bible contains no mention of said medical school. Shortly thereafter readers are told that Cleopatra studied human anatomy and physiology by dissecting condemned prisoners alive. The source for this horror story turns out to be a rabbinical tradition -- scarcely an unbiased source when dealing with Greeks or Greek culture. The rest of the book is at best naive hagiography.

Rating:
Summary: A pretty crummy book ....
Review: I rated this book at one star only because amazon.com doesn't allow a reviewer the option of zero stars. The author of this book is a biochemist -- not a trained historian -- and her amateurism certainly shows, particulary in the early chapters where a competent historian would be careful in the assessment of the historicity of sources. So Alic retails a tradition -- presented as though it has a factual basis -- about Moses and his wife operating a medical school in Egypt. Never mind that there is virtually no evidence independent of the Bible that Moses even existed. Perhaps needless to say that the Bible contains no mention of said medical school. Shortly thereafter readers are told that Cleopatra studied human anatomy and physiology by dissecting condemned prisoners alive. The source for this horror story turns out to be a rabbinical tradition -- scarcely an unbiased source when dealing with Greeks or Greek culture. The rest of the book is at best naive hagiography.

Rating:
Summary: A Woman Scientist's Point of View
Review: If you are a woman with any interest at all in the sciences (mathematics and philosophy included), then please read this book. I expected a strongly feministic "the man is holding me down" revision of history. I found a well-balanced and well-documented account of the content and context of the science and scientific lives of women who history has forgotten. I am a 36 year old female scientist, who for the first time has found a source of inspirational female role models in this book. Look, things weren't so good in the past for women. But let's not remain in denial and let's not rewrite the past. Let's read even-handed historical accounts, such as the one presented in this book, and then let's make healthy, well-balanced decisions about how society should best move forward.