Reviews
This book is indispensable and exciting reading for both scholars and a wider audience.
A powerful pick for any library interested in a scholarly yet lively survey of connections between science and culture.
An engaging and worthy study of the interaction of technology and culture over the last 560 years... Misa's excellent study can contribute much to such critical circumspection regarding technology, human reason and choices, and the purposes and possibilities of human thriving and communal life.
Closely reasoned, reflective, and written with insight, grace, and wit, Misa's book takes us on a personal tour of technology and history, seeking to define and analyze paradigmatic techno-cultural eras.
This review cannot do justice to the precision and grace with which Misa analyzes technologies in their social contexts. He convincingly demonstrates the usefulness of his conceptual model.
Follows [Thomas] Hughes's model of combining an engaging historical narrative with deeper lessons about technology.
His case studies, such as that of Italian futurism or the localizations of the global McDonald's, provide good starting points for thought and discussion.
A fascinating, informative, and well-illustrated book.
Book Details
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Technologies of the Court, 1450–1600
Chapter 2. Techniques of Commerce, 1588–1740
Chapter 3. Geographies of Industry, 1740–1851
Chapter 4
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Technologies of the Court, 1450–1600
Chapter 2. Techniques of Commerce, 1588–1740
Chapter 3. Geographies of Industry, 1740–1851
Chapter 4. Instruments of Empire, 1840–1914
Chapter 5. Science and Systems, 1870–1930
Chapter 6. Materials of Modernism, 1900–1950
Chapter 7. The Means of Destruction, 1936–1990
Chapter 8. Promises of Global Culture, 1970–2001
Chapter 9. Paths to Insecurity, 2001–2010
Chapter 10. Dominance of the Digital, 1990–2016
Chapter 11. The Question of Technology
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index