ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is for those who teach courses on European and world history at the university and college level. Although there is general agreement that science has become a major force in world history, it has tended to resist incorporation into overarching historical narratives. There are some excellent textbook aids to understanding the history of science and technology on large scale, but these accounts conform to stories forged within the disciplinary confines of their own specialties. The historian looking for primary-source material in English to assign to students is nowadays faced with an embarrassment of riches: so much is available online, in facsimile as well as in transcribed form, that merely offering to present selections from the history of science might seem otiose. The fact that these texts are principally western European, and written by well-to-do men, reflects certain cultural dominances and hegemonies.
