Deontic morality and control Book

Martin Padway is struck by lightning while visiting Rome and finds himself permanently displaced to the 6th century AD. A student of history, he decides to use his knowledge of technology and history to prevent Rome's fall and thus prevent the Dark Ages, and single-handedly jumpstarts the Industrial Revolution, introducing distilleries (to give him some money to live on and finance his operations), double-entry bookkeeping, the telegraph, the printing press, modern methods of warfare, etc. Yankee ingenuity FTW!

There are lots of interesting ideas about technology and how it might affect an earlier civilization. Written in 1939, this is one of the earliest--if not the earliest--SF books dealing with alternative history, so if you like the genre, it's worth taking a look at this short novel if only for that reason. It has its moments, but for me was a little slow overall, and it's heavier on plot than characterization. It's kind of like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with less humor and more technology.