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A Sense of Space

A Local’s Guide to a Flat Earth, the Edge of the Cosmos, and Other Curious Places

John Edward Huth

$53.95

Hardback

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English
University of Chicago Press
03 November 2025
From global navigation to natal charts to memory palaces and beyond, a thrilling journey through humanity's visualization of new spaces.

When you give directions, do you tell someone to go straight ahead and turn left? Or do you suggest that they head north before moving west? Your answer reveals more than you might think.

In A Sense of Space, writer and physicist John Edward Huth uses these two kinds of navigation—either centered on or independent of people—to help readers chart a path through evolving spatial models. In doing so, he offers an astonishing exploration of how changing scientific models of space alter our social perceptions, and vice versa. New visions of space can emanate from human considerations, he argues, and those new visions can in turn spawn new cultural phenomena. With accessible introductions to topics including mental maps, astrology, astronomy, particle physics, and Einstein's relativity, Huth makes clear that, although our minds have evolved to comprehend space on terrestrial distances, we routinely extend this understanding to realms far removed from our everyday experiences, from the cosmological to subatomic scales.

Taking us across the eons from the myth of a flat earth to the mysteries of the multiverse, A Sense of Space is an energetic, thoughtful guide to how we orient ourselves in our world—and beyond.
By:  
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 33mm
Weight:   626g
ISBN:   9780226844428
ISBN 10:   0226844420
Pages:   368
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

John Edward Huth is the Donner Professor of Science at Harvard University. He has done research in experimental particle physics since 1980 and is currently a member of the ATLAS collaboration at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). He participated in the discovery of the top quark and the Higgs boson and is the author of The Lost Art of Finding Our Way.

Reviews for A Sense of Space: A Local’s Guide to a Flat Earth, the Edge of the Cosmos, and Other Curious Places

“A fascinating exploration that takes us from oceans to space, back to the brain, and inside the atom. Extraordinary.” * Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator * “An idiosyncratic tour through the science of space, from the neuroscience of spatial perception to ancient astronomy, from relativity and particle physics to cosmology and the psychology of space travel. Along the way, our intrepid tour guide explores various ways—imaginative, misguided, or prescient—in which people have attempted to incorporate spatial ideas into everyday thinking and popular culture.” * Robyn Arianrhod, author of Vector: A Surprising Story of Space, Time, and Mathematical Transformation * “Huth is a splendid guide to humanity's evolving concepts of space, present, and past. With A Sense of Space, he provides clear and provocative illustrations of what it means to inhabit various places, from the intimate corridors of memory to the pliable pathways of time.” * Tracy Daugherty, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Larry McMurtry: A Life * “Explores the interaction between society and evolving scientific explanations of space. . . Intended for a general audience, Huth’s book focuses on how scientific models of space are continuously developed and change social perceptions of physical and celestial space."" * Harvard Crimson *


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