Technology and the West

de Terry S. Reynolds, Stephen H. Cutcliffe

This broad-ranging anthology provides a condensed overview of technology in Western civilization. Its twenty-one carefully-selected articles and overview essays demonstrate the complex relationship between technological and social change from antiquity to the present. Specific topics include the origins of contemporary social and political institutions in the irrigation civilizations of antiquity, technology and the military, popular perceptions of the early industrial revolution in Europe, the difference between invention and innovation, the role of government in the development of technology, the nature of technical expertise, and nuclear power and the environment. This collection will be extremely useful for faculty and students in undergraduate survey courses in the history of American technology as well as interdisciplinary science, technology and society courses. In addition, general readers will find this collection accessible and engaging.