"Science in the Twentieth Century: A Social-Intellectual Survey" Professor Steven L. Goldman (DVD) (36 Lectures / 30 Minutes Per Lecture / 6x DVD - The Great Courses)
Professor Steven L. Goldman’s 36-lecture survey offers a profound intellectual history of the 20th century, a period defined by the radical subversion of nearly every "certainty" established by 19th-century science. Rather than a mere chronology of discoveries, Goldman presents the century as a series of fundamental paradigm shifts—from the deterministic clockwork of Newtonian physics to the probabilistic strangeness of quantum mechanics and the relativistic nature of time and space. The course meticulously traces how concepts like the gene, the tectonic plate, and the expanding universe transitioned from radical conjectures to the bedrock of modern reality, emphasizing that these breakthroughs were not just technical achievements but profound shifts in the human perception of the cosmos.
 
Crucially, Goldman situates these scientific revolutions within their broader social and philosophical contexts, examining the "social-intellectual" feedback loop between the laboratory and the public square. He explores how science evolved from a marginal academic pursuit into a massive, state-funded engine of social policy, warfare, and economic life, while simultaneously addressing the philosophical tension inherent in scientific claims to "truth." By analyzing the "Science Wars" and the ethical quandaries of the nuclear and genomic ages, Goldman challenges the audience to view science as a powerful but human endeavor—one that is as much a product of historical values and intellectual struggle as it is an objective window into the natural world.