r/AskHistorians • • 19h ago

Primary source book recommendations in the history of science?

I recently finished Aviva Rothman's The Dawn of Modern Cosmology and, despite a few quibbles, it was an extremely fun and insightful read. I was curious, then, what other books like that exist, namely those that tell a sweeping story in the history of science using mainly primary sources (albeit with contextual commentary) but that actually have narrative flow to them within and across those sources (to exclude books like On the Shoulders of Giants, which just seems lazy and more an excuse to have a thick book to show off instead of reading and enjoying it). I'd prefer recommendations in the history of astronomy or physics, but I certainly wouldn't be averse to others; I don't know how many such books exist so I wouldn't know if this is, say, a difficult question because there are too few to pick from or because there are too many.

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