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| Document Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Robert D Friedel |
| ISBN: | 9780262062626 0262062623 9780262514019 026251401X |
| OCLC Number: | 71173933 |
| Awards: | Shortlisted for Intercollegiate Studies Institute Henry Paolucci / Walter Bagehot Book Award 2008. |
| Description: | x, 588 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. |
| Contents: | Technology and improvement -- Plows and horses -- Power -- Buildings for God and man -- Transforming matter -- Light and time -- Types of change -- Earth, fire, water, and air -- Improving knowledge -- Improvers and engineers -- Raising fire -- Fabrics of change -- Artisans, philosophes, and entrepreneurs -- Airs and lightning -- Mobility -- Messages -- Engineering emerges -- Stuff, reality, and dreams -- The improvement of violence -- Learning -- Dynamics -- Land and life -- Scale -- The corruption of improvement -- Networks -- Improvement's end. |
| Responsibility: | Robert Friedel. |
Abstract:
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
"By virtue of its range, quality, length (nearly 600 pages) and comprehensiveness, Robert Friedel's book will go to the top of the list as the standard text for an introductory Charlemagne-to-George-Bush course on the history of technology." Times Higher Education Supplement "A rare, detailed, nontheoretical survey that exposes the veins of invention that run through Western culture, creating an astonishing picture of achievement through its careful accumulation of small details. Under Mr. Friedel's firm touch it begins to be possible to feel something like the primal pulse of this culture." Edward Rothstein The New York Times "Friedel's dazzling tour de force describes almost every aspect of technology." Joel Mokyr Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Robert Friedel... can not only impart the lesser-known details of a familiar story but masterfully show how strange and wonderful it is that things happened the way they did." Adam Keiper The Wall Street Journal "[Robert Friedel] can not only impart the lesser-known details of a familiar story but masterfully show how strange and wonderful it is that things happened the way they did." Wall Street Journal "...[T]his book is also a rare, detailed, nontheoretical survey that exposes the veins of invention that run through Western culture, creating an astonishing picture of achievement through its careful accumulation of small details. Mr. Friedel surveys the kinds of inventions and technologies that developed in the West over centuries, compiling a roster of innovation that encompasses everything from textiles to time telling. Under his firm touch it begins to be possible to feel something like the primal pulse of this culture." Edward Rothstein The New York Times Read more...
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Related Subjects:(13)
- Technological innovations -- History.
- Technology and civilization.
- Civilization, Western.
- Intellectual life.
- Innovations -- Histoire.
- Technologie et civilisation.
- Civilisation occidentale.
- Vie intellectuelle.
- Technische vernieuwing.
- Technische ontwikkeling.
- Westerse wereld.
- Technischer Fortschritt.
- Westliche Welt.
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