This image is the cover for the book Science of Liberty

Science of Liberty

A “thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining” look at the historical connections between science and liberal democracy, and the forces that threaten both (The Wall Street Journal).

In The Science of Liberty, award–winning author Timothy Ferris—called “the best popular science writer in the English language today” by the Christian Science Monitor and “the best science writer of his generation” by the Washington Post—makes a passionate case for science as the inspiration behind the rise of liberalism and democracy. Ferris argues that just as the scientific revolution rescued billions from poverty, fear, hunger, and disease, the Enlightenment values it inspired has swelled the number of those living in free and democratic societies from less than 1 percent of the world population four centuries ago to more than a third today. He also surveys the forces that have opposed science and liberalism—from communism and fascism to postmodernism and fundamentalism—in a sweeping, stunningly original intellectual history that transcends antiquated concepts of right and left.

“Important, timely, and splendidly written.” —The Washington Post

“Engaging . . . Ferris usefully reminds us that science was an integral part of the intellectual equipment of the great pioneers of political and individual liberty.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A passionately crafted and articulate exploration of the relationship between science and democracy . . . show[s] how science and democracy working in symbiosis can thrive and—the author suggests, using the antiexamples of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union—can just as easily die.” —Bookmarks

“An important and extremely readable book . . . Ferris is one of America’s most skilled communicators about science . . . He shows himself a fascinating historian too.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Timothy Ferris

Timothy Ferris's works include Seeing in the Dark, The Mind's Sky (both New York Times best books of the year), and The Whole Shebang (listed by American Scientist as one of the one hundred most influential books of the twentieth century). A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Ferris has taught in five disciplines at four universities. He is an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a former editor of Rolling Stone. His articles and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Scientific American, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, and many other publications. A contributor to CNN and National Public Radio, Ferris has made three prime-time PBS television specials: The Creation of the Universe, Life Beyond Earth, and Seeing in the Dark. He lives in San Francisco.

HarperCollins