Reviews for Science, Technology and Society: The Impact of Science Throughout History: 2000 BC through the 18th Century

The average rating for Science, Technology and Society: The Impact of Science Throughout History: 2000 BC through the 18th Century based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-03-18 00:00:00 Rendy Lubis The novelty of the book is the idea that there needed to be a culture of education in order to support the Industrial Revolution. Innovation required a culture that would accept innovators and solution-oriented people who would solve technological problems without being afraid of being burned at the stake. That culture was fostered in England, and thus the Industrial Revolution grew in England. Brose, like Hohenberg and Lees, is examining and extremely wide time period in relatively few pages. What I found most useful about the book was the orientation it provided me with in understanding the way industry grew in Europe. I think it would be especially useful for teachers working with the Industrial Revolution not only because it has pictures, but also for its readability (at least for teachers, not sure about how students would receive it). Brose aims to integrate fields with his work, and I'm not sure how successful it is, but it is a point well taken. The discussion of proto-industrialization is relatively new (Brose didn't invent it, but it is part of a larger trend in seeing a longer, more gradual industrial evolution rather than a spontaneous revolution). It shows a co-mingling of early factories and home production which support the "evolution" rather then "revolution" position. There are other major points of the book, such as the comparison between England's technological growth and the delay of industrialization in the rest of Europe, but the major point is the need for a supportive intellectual culture for innovation. The rest is a summary- a good summary that is extremely useful, but a summary nonetheless.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-08 00:00:00 Arthur Owyoung This was a quite comprehensive survey of the American fascination with technological innovation. Covering structures like bridges and skyscrapers, and forms of power including steam, electricity and nuclear reactions, the author makes a a consistent case, and to some degree makes observations about the American character. It's unfortunate that the book was published just as the next wave of technology (the Internet) was becoming popular, because it would have been interesting to see how or whether something as comparatively abstract as information and data would fit with the definition of sublime, or perhaps be, in some way, the ultimate example of the technological sublime (transcending the individual.)