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The History of Science

A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History

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The History of Science

By: Professor Michael Shermer
Narrated by: Dr. Michael Shermer
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About this listen

 This is a sweeping look at science, its history and philosophy from the Middle Ages to the present, with special emphasis on defining science within the cultural context of the age, who was doing science at the time, and what their goals were in conducting science. This course reflects Dr. Shermer's doctoral training at Claremont Graduate School.©2009 Michael Shermer (P)2009 Michael Shermer World
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I returned this book because it was a rather rambling lecture series with Shermer spending a lot of time answering inaudible student questions. I imagine following it could have been a valuable experience, but insufficient time was spent preparing it for publication.

Poor editing ruins this lecture series

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After 2 hours I could not stand the stuttering narrator and put out the 25-hour audiobook. Very disappointing!

If the book had been portrayed by a good narrator, you might have picked something useful.
But my impression is that an insecure speaker from an unstructured work causes even more chaos. Sad.
Especially disturbing I found the frequent pauses with "um", throat clearing, "Yo know .." and the occasional stutter.

interesting material, poorly prepared and narrated

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The audiobook (selling at nearly £39) says it is a sweeping visage of science and it's history. It is most certainly that taking on issues such as religion and ideology as well as scientific method and discovery. However the lectures on which this audiobook is based comes from the 1990s. The production is poor, the questions from the audience are often inaudible, so in so e chapters you are presented with what appears to be up to 15 minutes of silence. A lot of the content is subjective and although often entertaining, is the kind of discussion I would expect at a dinner party. The views are American - calling Iraqis as only capable of growing food for camels is borderline racism. I was expecting much more and I am glad I did not pay full price. It is probably worth the single credit I have begrudgingly lost. Audible, you really need to reconsider whether this audiobook comes up to acceptable standards.

A Dubious Offering

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Poorly presented, poorly recorded, conversations take place that cannot be heard. Dr. Shermer has not practiced with this material he loses his place in his notes, he side tracks from the theme and shows a lack of practice at delivery. The price is much too high for the poor content of this audible. Despite all the drawbacks it raised some thought provoking ideas but not enough to rescue it or make it worthy of listening to twice.

Not Dr. Shermers best.

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I really enjoyed the subject - I learned so much.

The presenter has a pleasant, humour onus self-deprecating style.

But the recording is full of dead space, usually when someone in the audience is speaking, for the most part, I audibly. Pity. It would be so much more enjoyable if the bits we can't hear clearly were just cut out.

Good content, good presenter, needs to be edited

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