Volume 2

Andrew D. White (1832-1918), historian, diplomat, and first president of Cornell University, advocated such progressive causes as equal rights for women and the removal of religious sectarianism from higher education. In this important work, which spawned a great deal of controversy at its appearance, White exhaustively documents the battle between science and religion in matters of creation versus evolution, the geocentric versus the heliocentric universe, and the "fall of man" versus anthropology. The struggle of science over outmoded medieval concepts is still emerging. Even a century after its publication, White's great work has much to teach us about the dangerous effects of religious doctrinalism on education and moral growth.

First published in 1896, this two-volume history of the conflict between theology and science was widely recognised, along with John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, as a defining study of the subject. A distinguished educator, scholar and writer, Andrew Dickson White was the first president of Cornell University. White held the view that religion was historically opposed to progress in the field of science. He argued that any interference on the part of religion in science had always proved disastrous, whereas scientific investigation, no matter how seemingly damaging to religion, had always resulted in the highest good. This book is the culmination of thirty years of research, publication and lectures by White. Volume 1 discusses creation, evolution, geography, astronomy, meteorology, ethnology and antiquity. Volume 2 discusses medicine, insanity, mythology, political economy and comparative philology.