John North: History of Astronomy [1994] paperback

The big bang, black holes, space travel and life in other galaxies - this is the stuff of science fiction and the subject of much current speculation and research on the part of astronomers and cosmologists. Back in the Stone Age, men struggled to build calendars using 30-foot high rocks, while the Phoenicians, Moors and Chinese learnt to map the heavens in order to move around the earth and seas. This book shows how man's chronological needs pulled scientific developments along and helped generate the geometrical and mathematical principles in operation today.