Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present

by Thomas J. Misa

Overview

A masterful analysis of how technology and culture have influenced each other over five centuries, Leonardo to the Internet frames a history that illuminates modern-day problems and prospects faced by our technology-dependent world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421443119
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Series:	Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	39 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Thomas J. Misa (LOPEZ ISLAND, WA) is the author or coauthor of many books, including A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865–1925 and FastLane: Managing Science in the Internet World.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Technologies of the Court, 1450–1600
Chapter 2. Techniques of Commerce, 1588–1740
Chapter 3. Geographies of Industry, 1740–1851
Chapter 4. Instruments of Empire, 1840–1914
Chapter 5. Science and Systems, 1870–1930
Chapter 6. Materials of Modernism, 1900–1950
Chapter 7. The Means of Destruction, 1936–1990
Chapter 8. Promises of Global Culture, 1970–2001
Chapter 9. Paths to Insecurity, 2001–2010
Chapter 10. Dominance of the Digital, 1990–2016
Chapter 11. The Question of Technology
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

Merritt Roe Smith

[Leonardo to the Internet] is well written, accessible, and perceptive. It also has a comparative dimension that sets it apart from others of its genre. In my opinion, it is the first really good book on the theme of technology in western civilization since Kranzberg and Pursell published their pioneering two-volume work in 1967.

— Merritt Roe Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harper's Ferry Armory and the New Technology

Editorial Reviews

A powerful pick for any library interested in a scholarly yet lively survey of connections between science and culture.
—Midwest Book Review

An engaging and worthy study of the interaction of technology and culture over the last 560 years . . . Misa's excellent study can contribute much to such critical circumspection regarding technology, human reason and choices, and the purposes and possibilities of human thriving and communal life.
—Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Closely reasoned, reflective, and written with insight, grace, and wit, Misa's book takes us on a personal tour of technology and history, seeking to define and analyze paradigmatic techno-cultural eras.
—Technology and Culture

This review cannot do justice to the precision and grace with which Misa analyzes technologies in their social contexts. He convincingly demonstrates the usefulness of his conceptual model.
—History and Technology

Follows [Thomas] Hughes's model of combining an engaging historical narrative with deeper lessons about technology.
—American Scholar

His case studies, such as that of Italian futurism or the localizations of the global McDonald's, provide good starting points for thought and discussion.
—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

A fascinating, informative, and well-illustrated book.
—Choice

From the Publisher

A fascinating, informative, and well-illustrated book.

Choice

Closely reasoned, reflective, and written with insight, grace, and wit, Misa's book takes us on a personal tour of technology and history, seeking to define and analyze paradigmatic techno-cultural eras.

Technology and Culture

An engaging and worthy study of the interaction of technology and culture over the last 560 years . . . Misa's excellent study can contribute much to such critical circumspection regarding technology, human reason and choices, and the purposes and possibilities of human thriving and communal life.

Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies - Bruce N. Lundberg

A powerful pick for any library interested in a scholarly yet lively survey of connections between science and culture.

Midwest Book Review

This review cannot do justice to the precision and grace with which Misa analyzes technologies in their social contexts. He convincingly demonstrates the usefulness of his conceptual model.

History and Technology

Follows [Thomas] Hughes's model of combining an engaging historical narrative with deeper lessons about technology.

American Scholar

His case studies, such as that of Italian futurism or the localizations of the global McDonalds, provide good starting points for thought and discussion.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

An engaging and worthy study of the interaction of technology and culture over the last 560 years . . . Misa's excellent study can contribute much to such critical circumspection regarding technology, human reason and choices, and the purposes and possibilities of human thriving and communal life.

Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

His case studies, such as that of Italian futurism or the localizations of the global McDonalds, provide good starting points for thought and discussion.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History - Pamela O. Long

This is a short, well-researched, well-written study that makes understandable to a wide audience the close ties that have existed between industry and culture from the Renaissance to the present.

Industrial Archaeology - Elizabeth Norris

Follows [Thomas] Hughes's model of combining an engaging historical narrative with deeper lessons about technology.

American Scholar - Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

This is a short, well-researched, well-written study that makes understandable to a wide audience the close ties that have existed between industry and culture from the Renaissance to the present.

— Elizabeth Norris

Industrial Archaeology