Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them)

by Roberto Trotta

Overview

An astronomer "who writes like a poet" (Wall Street Journal) gives a sweeping, "beautifully written" (Nature) inquiry into how the night sky has shaped human history 

For as long as humans have lived, we have lived beneath the stars. But under the glow of today’s artificial lighting, we have lost the intimacy our ancestors once shared with the cosmos.  

In Starborn, cosmologist Roberto Trotta reveals how stargazing has shaped the course of human civilization. The stars have served as our timekeepers, our navigators, our muses—they were once even our gods. How radically different would we be, Trotta also asks, if our ancestors had looked up to the night sky and seen… nothing? He pairs the history of our starstruck species with a dramatic alternate version, a world without stars where our understanding of science, art, and ourselves would have been radically altered.  

Revealing the hidden connections between astronomy and civilization, Starborn summons us to the marvelous sight that awaits us on a dark, clear night—to lose ourselves in the immeasurable vastness above.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541674776
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	11/07/2023
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	105,433
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Roberto Trotta is professor of theoretical physics at the International School for Advanced Study in Trieste, Italy, and visiting professor of astrostatistics at Imperial College London. The award-winning author of The Edge of the Sky, he lives under dark skies near Trieste. 

Editorial Reviews

09/25/2023

Trotta (The Edge of the Sky), a physics professor at the International School for Advanced Study in Italy, offers a stellar survey of the “remarkable but often unrecognized” role played by stars and other cosmic bodies in human history. Covering the sky’s importance to timekeeping and navigation, Trotta notes that Egyptians as far back as the 13th century BCE divided the day into 12 hours on primitive sundials and that Polynesian mariners followed the stars to explore and settle “almost all habitable Pacific islands” between 2000 BCE and 1100 CE. Astronomy served as “the midwife to all Earth’s sciences,” Trotta contends, discussing how Galileo’s and Nicolaus Copernicus’s studies of the night sky contributed to the development of a scientific method “focused on regularities, measurement, and prediction.” The prose is evocative (“The artifacts and scant remains that do exist... cannot tell us of a hand raised to shield one’s eyes against the glare of the setting Sun, looking for the first slice of the crescent Moon”), and the history fascinates, even if the earliest material is largely reliant on speculation (Trotta suggests women may have kept the first lunar calendars to track their fertility and menstrual cycles). Still, it’s a stimulating take on how the heavens have shaped life on Earth. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Mr. Trotta writes like a poet, suffusing fact-dense pages with heart and even ardor.  Starborn presents an engaging cultural history, salted with well-placed literary reference and the occasional personal anecdote…accessible and enjoyable."—Rebecca Boyle, Wall Street Journal

"Trotta offers a stellar survey of the 'remarkable but often unrecognized' role played by stars and other cosmic bodies in human history... . The prose is evocative...and the history fascinates...it’s a stimulating take on how the heavens have shaped life on Earth."—Publishers Weekly

“This mesmerizing history of stargazing looks both back into the past and forward. An excellent recommendation for thoughtful and curious readers.”—Library Journal

“A stunning and unforgettable voyage through the stars. Almost every page will make you gulp in astonishment. To be so authoritative and yet so readable and companionable is a rare and priceless achievement.”—Stephen Fry, actor

“We are in danger of losing our night skies, our first and most primal connection to the greater universe around us. Roberto Trotta’s rich and poetic book is a powerful call to preservation. By tracing the intimate connections between human history and the stars above, he reminds us the skies are not only filled with beauty, but also with meaning and promise.”—Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

“A sweeping tour of humanity’s relationship with the night sky, Starborn soars from the historical to the personal. Trotta reveals how our lives are intertwined with the stars, from the exploration of our own planet and the birth of the sciences to how the human gaze turned inward. He also offers fantastical vignettes of what might have been—imagining a world without the heavens—and a clear-eyed view of humankind’s current and future connection with Earth and the cosmos.”—Professor Emily Levesque, author of The Last Stargazers

“Who would’ve thought the stars were so decisive for humanity? Fascinating and wondrous, the untold starry tale of how we came to be and a stark warning of the starless desolation ahead, should we be unwise enough to neglect our cosmic heritage.”—Professor Carissa Véliz, author of Privacy Is Power

“A fascinating insight into how and why the study of the stars has been central to the human story, and a book for anyone who cares about human culture and where it will be heading next.”—Andy Lawrence, author of Losing the Sky

“The most universal feature of our environment, the starry sky has been wondered at by all human societies since prehistoric times. Trotta draws on a trove of historical, scientific, and literary sources to reveal the often-surprising influences of a cosmic perspective on human lives. A fascinating book, admirable for erudition and style, that will leave readers viewing the stars with fresh eyes.”—Professor Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal

“Beautifully written and intensely personal, Trotta has produced the perfect guide to how the star-speckled sky has shaped the human story. A lyrical hymn to the cosmos and our intimate connection to the heavens.”—Professor Lewis Dartnell, author of Being Human

“Stimulating and sobering, a very readable inquiry into the night sky with a broad sweep.”—Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, University of Oxford

"A largely satisfying miscellany about stars."—Kirkus

From the Publisher

11/17/2023

What does society owe the stars? Trotta (astrophysics, Imperial Coll., London; The Edge of the Sky) asks this question as he charts human connection with the night sky. He says that first, the heavens stood in as an explanation for natural phenomena, as the home of gods in cultures all over the globe. Later, throughout human history, the stars played a vital role in timekeeping and navigation. Astronomy was the first science, as observation led to mathematics and a scientific method; a growing understanding and measuring of the universe led to technologies that underpin institutions and societies. Meanwhile, for individuals, astrology shows people how to see the stars in themselves. Trotta weaves in thought experiments between historical chapters; he describes an alternate world, Caligo, and imagines how different human history might be if people lived under a perpetually cloudy sky and were not guided by the stars. VERDICT This mesmerizing history of stargazing looks both back into the past and forward. An excellent recommendation for thoughtful and curious readers.—Catherine Lantz

Library Journal

2023-08-29
Looking for an original focus among the many books describing the universe, a theoretical physicist looks to the stars.

“Stars and planets spurred the invention of mathematics; the Moon, that of the calendar,” writes Trotta, author of The Edge of the Sky. “And could it be that paying attention to the heavens was the secret weapon that gave Homo sapiens supremacy over the Neanderthals fifty thousand years ago?” For millennia, the movements of the constellations, the five “wandering stars” (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), the Moon, the Sun, and occasional comets and meteors have held deep significance. They have governed clocks, calendars, seasons, planting, harvests, and holidays and have been the basis of myth and religion. While minor gods inhabited forests and caves, the big ones lived in the sky. All cultures have wondered at the stars. Trotta passes quickly over the big bang and follows no strict chronology, but he pauses regularly to recount events in a fictional culture on a planet where clouds permanently hide the sky. The result is a scattershot collection of chapters describing milestones in the study of stars, from the origin of calendars lost in prehistory to the mysteries of dark energy in this century. Astronomy buffs will find few pearls, but most readers will enjoy expert accounts of clocks throughout history; Newton’s spectacular work; the history of navigation (still entirely dependent on the stars); telescopes, from Galileo’s in 1611 to last year’s James Webb; the dazzling 19th-century discoveries of the enormous quantities and distances of stars; the dawn of computers; and the amazing appeal of astrology. In a grim conclusion, Trotta warns that the stars have long since disappeared from our light-poisoned cities and are imperiled everywhere, as we fill the air with pollution and Earth’s vicinity with space junk, spending billions on sending humans into orbit while billions suffer on Earth.

A largely satisfying miscellany about stars.

Kirkus Reviews