Technology: A World History (New Oxford World History)

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?

I found the text well researched, composed, and the author conveyed the progression of human technology from primitive beginnings to our current information age dominated by PCs and the Internet. There are some points that I'd like to make: PROs: The text was informative, useful for both students/academics and lay people with an interest, highlighted major events in technological history, and provided for a general summation of technology. CONs: As a diver, I was surprised not to find any mention of submarine technology, SCUBA diving, or any of the discoveries in oceanography. Though it is a worthwhile introduction, I feel some readers may want a bit more depth from a title which embraces such a big field.

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.

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.

It's a quick overview. I was expecting something a little deeper. Still kind of interesting though.

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...

Very interesting read. I would have never read it if my world civilizations professor hadn't have had us order it for our class. I might use it later in my homeschool coop when we have social studies projects.

I sent this as a gift. It was a bit disappointing and I haven't heard how the recipient liked it. It seemed more like a text book than what I'd wanted to send, but for the purpose of classroom work, it would probably work well.

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  Cities That 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. Cities

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.

Excellent