Pacey Arnold, Bray Francesca. Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History

Revised end Expanded edition. — The MIT Press, 2021. — 356 p. — ISBN 9780262366281, 0262366282.This milestone history of technology, first published in 1990 and now revised and expanded in light of recent research, broke new ground by taking a global view, avoiding the conventional Eurocentric perspective and placing the development of technology squarely in the context of a “world civilization.” Case studies include “technological dialogues” between China and West Asia in the eleventh century, medieval African states and the Islamic world, and the United States and Japan post-1950. It examines railway empires through the examples of Russia and Japan and explores current synergies of innovation in energy supply and smartphone technology through African cases.The book uses the term “technological dialogue” to challenge the top-down concept of “technology transfer,” showing instead that technologies are typically modified to fit local needs and conditions, often triggering further innovation. The authors trace these encounters and exchanges over a thousand years, examining changes in such technologies as agriculture, firearms, printing, electricity, and railroads. A new chapter brings the narrative into the twenty-first century, discussing technological developments including petrochemicals, aerospace, and digitalization from often unexpected global viewpoints and asking what new kind of industrial revolution is needed to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene.Arnold Pacey is the author of The Culture of Technology, Meaning in Technology, and The Maze of Ingenuity, all published by the MIT Press. He is a recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci Medal for the History of Technology.
Francesca Bray's recent books include Technology, Gender and History in Imperial China and Rice: Global Networks and New Histories. She is coeditor of the forthcoming Cambridge History of Technology and a recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci Medal for the History of Technology.Preface to the Revised Edition
Coauthor’s Note
Credits for Illustrations
An Age of Asian Technology, AD 700–1100
A Balance in World History
Hydraulic Engineering
A New City in Mesopotamia
Indian Ocean Trade
Buddhists and Technology
Perspectives
Complexes and Contrasts in Basic Technology, AD 1100–1260
Asian Conflicts
Spinning Wheels and Winding Machines
Technology Complexes and Food Production
Fine Technology
The Years of Upheaval
Movements West, 1150–1490
Islam and Africa
Islam and Europe
Making Paper
Crusaders and Mongols
Gunpowder and Firearms
The Diffusion of Technology
The Fourteenth-Century Watershed
Agroecology in the Americas and Asian Trade
Independent Invention
Biological Resources
Indian Ocean Shipping
Silver from Peru and Gold from Africa
Gunpowder Empires, 1450–1650
Turkish Ascendancy
Gunpowder and Society
Japanese Muskets
Printing, Books, and Ideas about Technology, 1550–1750
Developments in Printing
Concepts in Organization and Mechanization
Innovation at a Silk Mill
Factories and Plantations
Three Industrial Movements, 1700–1815
Problems of Resources
Steam Engines, Iron, and Coal
A Second Industrial Movement
The Challenge of Quality Imports
A Third Industrial Movement
Deindustrialization
Guns and Rails: Asia, Britain, and America
Asian Stimulus
Railway Empires, 1850–1940
Rails in Russia
Japanese Technology
Innovation and Dialogue
Imperialist Dimensions
Silver Geometry
Production Symbolism
Scientific Discoveries and Technical Dreams, 1860–1960
Electricity and Chemistry
The New Engine
The Swallows Fly Laughing
Dreams of New Worlds
Atoms for Peace
Policies for Technology in China
Microelectronics
Technologies for Health, Food, and Basic Needs
Contrasting Visions of Technology
Ecological Particularism
The Green Revolution
African Agriculture
Agroforestry in Temperate Regions
Household-Level Innovation in Rural Africa
Significance of the African Experience
Into the Twenty-First Century
Waves of Innovation
Twentieth-Century Technologies—Semiconductors and Communication
Photovoltaic and Other Innovations
Environmental Limits
The Twenty-First-Century Industrial Revolution
Notes
Preface to the Revised Edition
Coauthor’s Note
An Age of Asian Technology, AD 700–1100
Complexes and Contrasts in Basic Technology, AD 1100–1260
Movements West, 1150–1490
Agroecology in the Americas and Asian Trade
Gunpowder Empires, 1450–1650
Printing, Books, and Ideas about Technology, 1550–1750
Three Industrial Movements, 1700–1815
Guns and Rails
Railway Empires, 1850–1940
Scientific Discoveries and Technical Dreams, 1860–1960
Technologies for Health, Food, and Basic Needs
Into the Twenty-First Century