Customers say
Customers find the book provides a good overview of technology and is clearly written. However, they note that it lacks depth, with one customer specifically mentioning that 148 pages are insufficient for thorough coverage.
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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
Today technology has created a world of dazzling progress, growing disparities of wealth and poverty, and looming threats to the environment. Technology: A World History offers an illuminating backdrop to our present moment–a brilliant history of invention around the globe. Historian Daniel R. Headrick ranges from the Stone Age and the beginnings of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution and the electronic revolution of the recent past. In tracing the growing power of humans over nature through increasingly powerful innovations, he compares the evolution of technology in different parts of the world, providing a much broader account than is found in other histories of technology. We also discover how small changes sometimes have dramatic results–how, for instance, the stirrup revolutionized war and gave the Mongols a deadly advantage over the Chinese. And how the nailed horseshoe was a pivotal breakthrough for western farmers. Enlivened with many illustrations, Technology offers a fascinating look at the spread of inventions around the world, both as boons for humanity and as weapons of destruction.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: Vincent A. Roscelli
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A very clear and well written overview of the main thrusts of technology.
Review: An excellent, valuable reference resource for the historian. And a great introductory overview of how technoloty has evolved over the mellina for students at every level.
Reviewer: Mr. Straightforward
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fantastic, can even be published as “Non-Fiction”…
Review: This is one of those books, in which you just wish that it would keep going on…Written very skillfully, makes history not only interesting but reading this removes boredom…
Reviewer: A M
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A list of the main inventions along the history
Review: The book lists the main inventions throughout history. There are no explanations about how these inventions actually work, but one can find these explanations in Wikipedia. Some pages are devoted to questions expected to interest historians, such as: why the Industrial Revolution started in England and not in China?
Reviewer: kimberly vargas
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good book
Review: It was pretty cool to read I still haven’t finished it yet
Reviewer: Jonathan Reynolds
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Five Stars
Review: Great little book! Smart and clearly written. A great addition to World History courses.
Reviewer: Sophie
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Stains
Review: I bought the used one and it has stains all over it!!!
Reviewer: Ray
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Extreme overview
Review: Daniel Headrick has provided a slim (179 pages including index, notes, etc.) overview of the history of technology, from the Stone Age through today. Essentially it’s an executive summary of six thousand years of the history of technology (not counting the Stone Age as history).This is the book’s strength and weakness. The strength is that you can quickly read a top line review of the evolution of technology and the societies that invented or exploited it. He looks at where certain technologies were invented, how they moved from one civilization to another, and how they were exploited and by whom. Another good thing about the book is that although it’s about technology the author addresses the fact that technology is not necessarily the driver in whether or not a civilization is successful. He points out that geography, climate, governments, religion, and peoples’ attitudes towards technology often impact invention and exploitation.At the same time he doesn’t focus on any one civilization. He reviews technologies as they impacted, or not, all the major civilizations around the world. It’s not Euro-centric, but it also goes beyond China and the Arabs to discuss early American and African civilizations – all at a very high level.The weakness is that it lacks depth and rarely provides context. In fact, the last chapter, covering WWII through the present, is nothing more than a laundry list of technological advances in the last 70 years without any historical analysis or context. The author acknowledges that, “it is difficult to draw conclusions from events that are still happening,” but it’s almost as if it’s an excuse to not provide any analysis of the period.Is the book worth the money? Tough call….you either have to be very interested in the subject and have a desire to keep up with the literature, or you’re new to the subject and want nothing more than an abridged version for you to to want to have this book.
Reviewer: Cristy Love
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Perfect condition
Review: Bought for a college class. Arrived just as described in perfect condition.
Reviewer: Dr John G1AWJ
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellent
Reviewer: A Bloke
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This (intentionally) short book covers a lot of ground. In so doing it presents a time line of the evolution of technology and some interesting ideas suggesting wider consequences, some uncontroversial (farming), others, e.g., how technology enabled political control not so much (did “might is right” really start with technology?)A book of this length cannot possibly attempt completeness but it was the ideas introduced that caused me most difficulty. That the wheel didn’t get taken up as quickly as it might threw away that wheels need roads. People organised to build stuff (e.g., Stonehenge) but roads took a while. Why? And what of roads? What was their function? (ask the Romans… then again read CitiesThat underlying challenge became a re-occurring theme for this reader.In the end I came to the conclusion that the task was impossible. It’s a good attempt but not enough.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A fairly conventional (though short) chronological history of technology, from stone tools to the internet. There are few factual revelations or sharp insights. However, it’s fine as an introductory text.
Price effective as of Jun 23, 2025 03:42:52 UTC
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