Description: This book surveys the history of technology & science over four centuries. It begins with the opening of the modern historical epoch around 1500 & ends with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. One goal of the study is to weave various historiographical threads-separate or only partly woven until now-into one fabric. The history of technology, the history of science, & the history of economic development leading to the Industrial Revolution have developed to a very great degree as three histories. For decades historians of science & technology agreed with one another that until the 1900s there was little causative interaction between the subjects they studied. Economists treated science & technology as "residual" factors that were important only to the extent that they could be measured. Busy pursuing detailed monographic research in these fields, moreover, few historians attempted to demonstrate the relationship between science, technology, economy, & general political developments. But in this work of synthesis-this "interpretive" survey work-Professor Brose incorporates a study of economic & scientific factors as well as the role of social & political institutions.

Please Wait