Science And Technology in World History

by McClellan, James E., III; Dorn, Harold

• ISBN13: 9780801883606
• ISBN10: 0801883601
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-14
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Now in its second edition, this bestselling textbook may be the single most influential study of the historical relationship between science and technology ever published. Tracing this relationship from the dawn of civilization through the twentieth century, James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn argue that technology as "applied science" emerged relatively recently, as industry and governments began funding scientific research that would lead directly to new or improved technologies. McClellan and Dorn identify two great scientific traditions: the useful sciences, patronized by the state from the dawn of civilization, and scientific theorizing, initiated by the ancient Greeks. They find that scientific traditions took root in China, India, and Central and South America, as well as in a series of Near Eastern empires, during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. From this comparative perspective, the authors explore the emergence of Europe and the United States as a scientific and technological power. The new edition reorganizes its treatment of Greek science and examines significantly expands its coverage of industrial civilization and contemporary science and technology with new and revised chapters devoted to applied science, the sociology and economics of science, globalization, and the technological systems that underpin everyday life.

Author Biography

James E. McClellan III is professor of the history of science and Harold Dorn is professor emeritus of the history of science and technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction. The Guiding Themes	1	(2)
PART I. From Ape to Alexander	3	(94)
Humankind Emerges: Tools and Toolmakers	5	(12)
The Reign of the Farmer	17	(14)
Pharaohs and Engineers	31	(24)
Greeks Bearing Gifts	55	(24)
Alexandria and After	79	(18)
PART II. Thinking and Doing among the World's Peoples	97	(78)
The Enduring East	99	(18)
The Middle Kingdom	117	(24)
Indus, Ganges, and Beyond	141	(14)
The New World	155	(20)
PART III. Europe and the Solar System	175	(100)
Plows, Stirrups, Guns, and Plagues	177	(26)
Copernicus Incites a Revolution	203	(20)
The Crime and Punishment of Galileo Galilei	223	(26)
``God said, `Let Newton be!'''	249	(26)
PART IV. Science and Industrial Civilization	275	(162)
Timber, Coal, Cloth, and Steam	279	(16)
Legacies of Revolution	295	(28)
Life Itself	323	(16)
Toolmakers Take Command	339	(26)
The New Aristotelians	365	(26)
The Bomb and the Genome	391	(24)
Under Today's Pharaohs	415	(22)
Conclusion: The Medium of History	437	(4)
Guide to Resources	441	(22)
Illustration Credits	463	(2)
Index	465