Synopses & Reviews
From cathedrals to star wars, Arnold Pacey looks at the interaction of technologies and society over the last thousand years and uses that survey to argue for a more humane form of future technological development. The second edition of
The Maze of Ingenuity concentrates on Europe and North America and incorporates recent insights from the history and sociology of technology. A new series of chapters extends Pacey's discussion of the role of ideas and ideals in technology in the period since the industrial revolution. Arnold Pacey has taught the history of science and technology at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Work on this new edition has been carried on in parallel with tutorial teaching for an Open University course entitled "Technology and Change."
ContentsThe Cathedral Builders: European Technical Achievement between 1100 and 1280A Century of Invention: 1250-1350Mathematics and the Arts: 1450-1600The Practical Arts and the Scientific RevolutionSocial Ideals in Technical Change: German Miners and English Puritans, 1450-1650The State and Technical Progress: 1660-1770Technology in the Industrial RevolutionConflicting Ideals in Engineering: America and Britain, 1790-1870Institutionalizing Technical Ideals, 1820-1920Idealistic Trends in Twentieth-Century Technology.
Review
Here is a book that should immediately be put into paperback and placed in the hands of undergraduates everywhere and in all disciplines. Its subject matter ranges from the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages to the prophets of systems analysis in our own century. Yet Dr. Pacey is nowhere superficial (review of first edition) Nature
Synopsis
From cathedrals to star wars, Arnold Pacey looks at the interaction of technologies and society over the last thousand years and uses that survey to argue for a more humane form of future technological development.
Synopsis
Contents: The Cathedral Builders: European Technical Achievement between 1100 and 1280. A Century of Invention: 1250-1350. Mathematics and the Arts: 1450-1600. The Practical Arts and the Scientific Revolution. Social Ideals in Technical Change: German Miners and English Puritans, 1450-1650. The State and Technical Progress: 1660-1770. Technology in the Industrial Revolution. Conflicting Ideals in Engineering: America and Britain, 1790-1870. Institutionalizing Technical Ideals, 1820-1920. Idealistic Trends in Twentieth-Century Technology.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-291) and index.
About the Author
Arnold Pacey is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, Britain. He is the author of The Culture of Technology (MIT Press, 1983), Technology and World Civilization (MIT Press, 1991), and The Maze of Ingenuity, second edition (MIT Press, 1992).