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A culture of improvement : technology and the Western millennium / Robert Friedel.

Ebook Central Academic Complete Available online

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Ebook Central College Complete Available online

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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Friedel, Robert D. (Robert Douglas), 1950-
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Civilization, Western.
Intellectual life.
Technological innovations--History.
Technological innovations.
Technology and civilization.
Physical Description:
x, 588 p. : ill.
Edition:
1st ed.
Place of Publication:
Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, c2007.
Language Note:
English
Summary:
How technological change in the West has been driven by the pursuit of improvement: a history of technology, from plows and printing presses to penicillin, the atomic bomb, and the computer.
Contents:
Intro
Contents
Preface
1 Technology and Improvement
2 Plows and Horses
3 Power
4 Buildings for God and Man
5 Transforming Matter
6 Light and Time
7 Types of Change
8 Earth, Fire, Water, and Air
9 Improving Knowledge
10 Improvers and Engineers
11 Raising Fire
12 Fabrics of Change
13 Artisans, Philosophes, and Entrepreneurs
14 Airs and Lightning
15 Mobility
16 Messages
17 Engineering Emerges
18 Stuff, Reality, and Dreams
19 The Improvement of Violence
20 Learning
21 Dynamics
22 Land and Life
23 Scale
24 The Corruption of Improvement
25 Networks
26 Improvement's End
Notes
Index.
Notes:
Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Includes bibliographical references (p. [545]-568) and index.
ISBN:
1-282-09864-0
9786612098642
0-262-27323-3
OCLC:
191935478

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