Review and Critique of Chapter Five in Bernal’s “Science in History”

Excerpts from the Paper

Review and Critique of Chapter Five in Bernal's "Science in History"
In the fifth chapter of his book, Science in History, J.D. Bernal makes the case that a vigorous—albeit altered—form of science flourished from the fall of the Roman Empire in the third century C.E. to the ninth century B.C.E., commonly known as the Dark Ages. Bernal uncovers some of the Eurocentric assumptions inherent in the very concept of the so-called Dark Ages, as he points out that many advances in science (including manufacturing, mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, and more) during this period originated from India and China (179).
Bernal argues that the period that he refers to as the transition to feudalism was not only fruitful in its own right—thanks in part...

..... geometry (84). The point is not of vital significance, but it is a pet peeve of mine that Egypt is constantly extricated from classical science and civilization by scholars who have what Marchand calls “quasi-racist preferences” (44) for Greek and Latin culture. As Bernal is charitable to Indian and Chinese science, one might be able to ascribe his omission of Egypt to ignorance rather than to malice.
References
Bernal, J.D. Science in History. London: C.A. Watts, 1965.
Bernal, Martin. Black Athena Writes Back. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2001.
Clagett, Marshall. Ancient Egyptian Science: Ancient Egyptian
Mathematics. New York: DIANE Publishing, 1999.
Marchand, Suzanne. Down from Olympus. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003.