It’s a mad old world
FLAT EARTH: The History of an Infamous Idea by Christine Garwood
Macmillan £20 pp436
Up until 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, everyone believed the earth was flat. Since then, everyone has known better. In fact, as Christine Garwood demonstrates in this quirky and highly entertaining slice of intellectual history, both these statements are false. The Ancient Greeks knew very well that they lived on a globe, while the Flat Earth News ceased publication only in 1988.
Not the least attractive thing about Garwood's study is her criticism of modern scientists whose arrogant assumption that the present always trumps the past only flatters their self-esteem. She dismisses "supposed Christian closed-mindedness" as a post-Enlightenment myth. The Church was at the forefront of intellectual and scientific discovery for centuries. Indeed, it's really quite stupid and credulous of us now to believe that most medieval people thought Columbus would fall off the