A Culture of improvement : technology and the western millennium / Robert Friedel
Material type:
TextPublication details: Cambridge : The MIT Press, 2007Description: x, 588 p. 22 cmISBN: - 9780262062626
- 303.483 FRI
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Calcutta | 303.483 FRI (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | IIMC-129786 |
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| 303.483 FOS Traditional societies and technological change / | 303.483 FRE Innovation,evolution and complexity theory / | 303.483 FRI Future imperfect : | 303.483 FRI A Culture of improvement : | 303.483 GAN Progress in science and its social conditions / | 303.483 GAN Progress in science and its social conditions / | 303.483 GEI The Metrics of science and technology / |
Friedel presents a series of narratives of Western technology that begin in the eleventh century and stretch into the twenty-first. Familiar figures from the history of invention are joined by others--the Italian preacher who described the first eyeglasses, the dairywomen displaced from their control over cheesemaking, and the little-known engineer who first suggested a grand tower to Gustav Eiffel. Friedel traces technology from the plow and the printing press to the internal combustion engine, the transistor, and the space shuttle. Friedel also reminds us that faith in improvement can sometimes have horrific consequences: improved weaponry makes warfare ever more deadly and the drive for improving human beings can lead to eugenics and even genocide.
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