James Hannam

James Hannam

a smiling man wearing glasses and a blue shirt.

James Hannam, PhD is a graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge, with degrees in physics and history. He is the author of God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (2009), which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and The Globe: How the Earth Became Round (2023). He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and lives in Kent with his wife and two teenage children.

Tolkien's imaginative world encompassed a square and stationary earth. Why Tolkien and C.S. Lewis explored the flat-Earth “absurdity”
Narnia and early Middle-earth were pancake-esque — but their creators took differing views on de-globalization.
A drawing of a man with a beard and a pot. Respect alchemy. The crazy, criminal pursuit gave us modern science
Alchemy had its golden age in the 17th century, when it counted Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle among its adherents.
John Templeton Foundation
Islam has become less rational since its medieval Golden Age. What went wrong?
Once a cosmopolitan faith, Islam valued intellectualism and modernity. It was derailed by various geopolitical and religious forces.