The Globe : How the Earth Became Round

by Hannam, James

General & world history

Published 13/10/2025 by REAKTION BOOKS in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 384 pages, 46 illustrations

Now in paperback, The Globe traces humanity’s quest to understand the true shape of the Earth. Ancient Greek philosophers identified it as spherical in the fourth century BCE, with this knowledge spreading via Rome, India, and Central Asia. The Catholic Church accepted a round Earth well before Columbus, yet Jesuit missionaries only persuaded the Chinese to abandon their square-earth cosmology in the seventeenth century. Challenging traditional views on intellectual history, The Globe argues that recognising Earth’s spherical nature was humanity’s first major scientific breakthrough. Compelling and thought-provoking, the book explores how this discovery reshaped global perspectives across centuries.