Education
Street John"s College.
(From the books of H.G. Wells to the press releases of NAS...)
From the books of H.G. Wells to the press releases of NASA, we are awash in clichéd claims about high technology's ability to change the course of history. Now, in The Shock of the Old, David Edgerton offers a startling new and fresh way of thinking about the history of technology, radically revising our ideas about the interaction of technology and society in the past and in the present. He challenges us to view the history of technology in terms of what everyday people have actually used-and continue to use-rather than just sophisticated inventions. Indeed, many highly touted technologies, from the V-2 rocket to the Concorde jet, have been costly failures, while many mundane discoveries, like corrugated iron, become hugely important around the world. Edgerton reassesses the significance of such acclaimed inventions as the Pill and information technology, and underscores the continued importance of unheralded technology, debunking many notions about the implications of the "information age." A provocative history, The Shock of the Old provides an entirely new way of looking historically at the relationship between invention and innovation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199832617/?tag=2022091-20
(The first proper global account of the place of technolog...)
The first proper global account of the place of technology in twentieth century history, this brilliant, thought-provoking book will radically revise our understanding of the relationship between technology and society. Whereas standard histories of technology give tired old accounts of the usual inventions - planes, bombs - "The Shock of the Old" is based on a different idea. Its thrust is that for the full picture of the history of technology we need to know not about what a few people invented, but about what everyday people used - and when they actually used things, if it was a long time after invention. It, therefore, reassesses the significance of, for example, the Pill and IT, and shows the continued importance of technology, such as corrugated iron and sewing machines. In taking this approach, "The Shock of the Old" challenges the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change and so dismisses naivetes about 'the information age'. Interweaving political, economic and cultural history, it will show what it means to think critically about technology and its importance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1861972962/?tag=2022091-20
Street John"s College.
After teaching the economics of science and technology and the history of science and technology at the University of Manchester, he became the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Imperial College, London, and Hans Rausing Professor. He has held a Major Research Fellowship (2006-2009) from the Leverhulme Trust. In 2013, he led the move of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine to the Department of History of King"s College London.
One of Britain’s leading historians, Edgerton has published a number of works over 20 years which challenge conventional analyses of science and technology.
Significant among them are Warfare State: Britain 1920-1970 (Cambridge, 2005) and He has written for such publications as Prospect, the London Review of Books, Nature, Times Higher Education Supplement, and The Guardian, and has often appeared on television and radio.
(The first proper global account of the place of technolog...)
(Will be shipped from US. Brand new copy.)
(From the books of H.G. Wells to the press releases of NAS...)