Science and technology in world history : an introduction / James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McClellan, James E., III (James Edward), 1946-

Contributor:

Dorn, Harold, 1928-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--History.

Science.

History.

Technology--History.

Technology.

Tool and die makers--History.

Tool and die makers.

Physical Description:

ix, 478 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.

Summary:

Now in its second edition, this best-selling textbook may be the single most influential study of the historical relationship between science and technology ever published. Tracing this relationship from the dawn of civilization through the twentieth century, James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn argue that technology as "applied science" emerged relatively recently, as industry and governments began funding scientific research that would lead directly to new or improved technologies.

McClellan and Dorn identify two great scientific traditions: the useful sciences, patronized by the state from the dawn of civilization, and scientific theorizing, initiated by the ancient Greeks. They find that scientific traditions took root in China, India, and Central and South America, as well as in a series of Near Eastern empires, during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. From this comparative perspective, the authors explore the emergence of Europe and the United States as a scientific and technological power.

The new edition reorganizes its treatment of Greek science and significantly expands its coverage of industrial civilization and contemporary science and technology with new and revised chapters devoted to applied science, the sociology and economics of science, globalization, and the technological systems that underpin everyday life.

Contents:

Introduction: The Guiding Themes 1

Part I From Ape to Alexander 3

Chapter 1 Humankind Emerges: Tools and Toolmakers 5

Chapter 2 The Reign of the Farmer 17

Chapter 3 Pharaohs and Engineers 31

Chapter 4 Greeks Bearing Gifts 55

Chapter 5 Alexandria and After 79

Part II Thinking and Doing among the World's Peoples 97

Chapter 6 The Enduring East 99

Chapter 7 The Middle Kingdom 117

Chapter 8 Indus, Ganges, and Beyond 141

Chapter 9 The New World 155

Part III Europe and the Solar System 175

Chapter 10 Plows, Stirrups, Guns, and Plagues 177

Chapter 11 Copernicus Incites a Revolution 203

Chapter 12 The Crime and Punishment of Galileo Galilei 223

Chapter 13 "God said, 'Let Newton be!'" 249

Part IV Science and Industrial Civilization 275

Chapter 14 Timber, Coal, Cloth, and Steam 279

Chapter 15 Legacies of Revolution 295

Chapter 16 Life Itself 323

Chapter 17 Toolmakers Take Command 339

Chapter 18 The New Aristotelians 365

Chapter 19 The Bomb and the Genome 391

Chapter 20 Under Today's Pharaohs 415

Conclusion: The Medium of History 437.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [441]-461) and index.

ISBN:

0801883598

0801883601

OCLC:

61687847

Publisher Number:

9780801883606

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description