The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick

This book provides an interesting perspective on the early modern world. It starts by describing the conditions of the world in the seventeenth century, especially highlighting the differences in religious belief, and the string of disasters that struck London (the Plague, the Great Fire) in the middle of the century. Then it covers a range of astronomical and scientific discoveries (especially about how the solar system is set up). Finally it deals with the discoveries of calculus by Newton and Leibniz. The book does a nice job making the science and math reasonably clear for the layperson, and it has a lot of fun history.