A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium
"By virtue of its range, quality, length (nearly 600 pages) and comprehensiveness, Robert Friedel's book will go to the top of the list as the standard text for an introductory Charlemagne-to-George-Bush course on the history of technology." Times Higher Education Supplement"A rare, detailed, nontheoretical survey that exposes the veins of invention that run through Western culture, creating an astonishing picture of achievement through its careful accumulation of small details. Under Mr. Friedel's firm touch it begins to be possible to feel something like the primal pulse of this culture." Edward Rothstein The New York Times"Friedel's dazzling tour de force describes almost every aspect of technology." Joel Mokyr Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Robert Friedel... can not only impart the lesser-known details of a familiar story but masterfully show how strange and wonderful it is that things happened the way they did." Adam Keiper The Wall Street Journal"[Robert Friedel] can not only impart the lesser-known details of a familiar story but masterfully show how strange and wonderful it is that things happened the way they did."Wall Street Journal"...[T]his book is also a rare, detailed, nontheoretical survey that exposes the veins of invention that run through Western culture, creating an astonishing picture of achievement through its careful accumulation of small details. Mr. Friedel surveys the kinds of inventions and technologies that developed in the West over centuries, compiling a roster of innovation that encompasses everything from textiles to time telling. Under his firm touch it begins to be possible to feel something like the primal pulse of this culture."Edward RothsteinThe New York Times"This is a splendid book, recalling Mumford's *Technics and Civilization* in its scope and erudition. It challenges to think carefully about the idea of progress, the 'culture of improvement,' and the uneasy relationship that persists between freedom, power, and social responsibility in the modern technological world."--Merritt Roe Smith, Cutten Professor of the History of Technology, MIT