Medieval Technology and Social Change
InMedieval Technology and Social Change, Lynn White considers the effects of  technological innovation on the societies of medieval Europe: the slow collapse of feudalism with the  development of machines and tools that introduced factories in place of cottage industries, and the  development of the manorial system with the introduction of new kinds of plows and new methods of crop  rotation. One invention of particular import, writes White, was the stirrup, which in turn introduced heavy,  long-range cavalry to the medieval battlefield. The development thus escalated small-scale conflict to  "shock combat." Cannons and flamethrowers followed, as did more peaceful inventions, such  as watermills and reapers.