On the Shoulders of Heretics

Download or read book On the Shoulders of Heretics written by Joe Fone and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-28 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (This book supersedes On the Shoulders of Heretics (2016), originally published by Austin Macauley Ltd., London) In 1950 one of the most controversial books ever written was published in America. Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky caused a perfect storm of fury within the scientific establishment. It sent shockwaves throughout the academic world, precipitating a campaign of suppression, public ridicule and character assassination that continued without let-up for decades. Scientists, astronomers and professors of ancient history were so incensed by Velikovsky's heresies that they blackmailed his publisher, Macmillan, by boycotting their textbook division and forcing them to relinquish the rights to what had become a best seller. They then forced a public recantation from the company whose senior editor - responsible for having signed the original contract with Velikovsky - was subsequently sacked under hostile pressure from the astronomers. Velikovsky was then hounded and attacked in the media and in science journals until his death in 1979. He was the quintessential heretic with a very challenging idea that nobody wanted to hear. The campaign to bury Velikovsky and his Worlds in Collision was begun by Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley in 1950 and it continued until Carl Sagan finally succeeded in 1974 at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Symposium in San Francisco, an event that was arranged specifically with that purpose in mind. This book tells that story.