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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Short History of Nearly Everything, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science, Discovery, and Mystery
Writing, Wonder, and Inspiration
Progress, Sexism, and Dogma
Existence, Awe, and Survival
Summary
Analysis
Bill Bryson begins by saying he’s glad the reader could make it. Truth be told, it’s a “miracle” that humans are here at all, considering that we’re made of “mindless” atoms that coalesce into people (and everything else in the universe) for a time before dispersing (for unknown reasons).
As a child, Bryson finds science books terribly boring and technical. One day, however, he’s on a long flight over the Pacific Ocean, and he realizes how little he knows about why Earth works the way it does. He starts thinking about how scientists work things out. Why do they know some things (like how the universe started) and not others (like if it will rain next Wednesday)? Moreover, is it possible to marvel at scientific achievement at a level that is neither too technical nor too simplistic?
Bryson raises another central idea in the book—that scientific knowledge ought to instill readers with a sense of wonder about the world, but that this is often stymied by bad writing that hinders the impact a scientific discovery. Bryson aims to articulate scientific ideas in a more intuitive, accessible way so that readers realize science isn’t esoteric and dull, but a worthy and exciting pursuit.
Themes
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