The Use of the Book in Changing the World

Abstract

A book can stabilize ideas. It can also pry things loose. Copernicus, in the closeness of his study, finished the writing of his great work, De Revolutionibus and was afraid. Archimedes, almost two thousand years before, had said that if he were given a place to stand and a long enough lever he could literally move the world. Copernicus did just this with the power of his mind and the strength of his pen. He withheld the publication of his book for thirty-six years, but even then it was greeted with laughter, derision and fear.