David Edgerton is the Hans Rausing Professor at
Imperial College, London, where he was the founding director of the
Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
"Provocative, concise, and elegant..."The Shock of the Old" is a
necessary reminder of just how important things are in our lives,
and how important we are in the life of things."--The New
Yorker
"Most histories of technology and considerations of the interaction
of technology and society stress invention and innovation. Thus
accounts of the 20th century typically progress from automobiles,
airplanes, and radio through rockets, nuclear power, and computers
to today's frontiers of information, biotechnology, and
nanotechnology. In opposition to this future-focused approach,
Edgerton offers a convincing case that we ought to pay far more
attention to what people actually used and still use... fresh and
accessible account..."--Science Magazine
"The Shock of the Old is a pathbreaking work...a bold and
necessarily preliminary reconnaissance, in brief, in the direction
of a comprehensively contextualized view of technology."--American
Scientist
"The history of technology is often told as a history of key
inventions: the electric light bulb, the motor car, nuclear
weapons, and so on. The Shock of the Old is a lucid and completely
convincing rebuttal of that received narrative.--Journal of
American History
"David Edgerton's book has a provocative thesis that will stimulate
considerable discussion. The Shock of the Old will surely appear on
professorial reading lists for both undergraduate and graduate
students, as well as attracting the interest of general
readers."--Isis, The Journal of the Historyof Science Society
"This refreshing new book offers a wonderfully sobering antidote to
the neotechnophilia that often characterizes our society. In his
romp through 20th-century technology, Edgerton marvels not at the
progression of new technologies but at the persistence of old ones
and the ways in which they have shaped, and continue to shape, the
fabric of our lives. He challenges the innovation-centered stories
that have come to dominate rece
"Provocative, concise, and elegant..."The Shock of the Old" is a
necessary reminder of just how important things are in our lives,
and how important we are in the life of things."--The New
Yorker
"Most histories of technology and considerations of the interaction
of technology and society stress invention and innovation. Thus
accounts of the 20th century typically progress from automobiles,
airplanes, and radio through rockets, nuclear power, and computers
to today's frontiers of information, biotechnology, and
nanotechnology. In opposition to this future-focused approach,
Edgerton offers a convincing case that we ought to pay far more
attention to what people actually used and still use... fresh and
accessible account..."--Science Magazine
"The Shock of the Old is a pathbreaking work...a bold and
necessarily preliminary reconnaissance, in brief, in the direction
of a comprehensively contextualized view of technology."--American
Scientist
"The history of technology is often told as a history of key
inventions: the electric light bulb, the motor car, nuclear
weapons, and so on. The Shock of the Old is a lucid and completely
convincing rebuttal of that received narrative.--Journal of
American History
"David Edgerton's book has a provocative thesis that will stimulate
considerable discussion. The Shock of the Old will surely appear on
professorial reading lists for both undergraduate and graduate
students, as well as attracting the interest of general
readers."--Isis, The Journal of the History of Science Society
"This refreshing new book offers a wonderfully sobering antidote to
the neotechnophilia that often characterizes our society. In his
romp through20th-century technology, Edgerton marvels not at the
progression of new technologies but at the persistence of old ones
and the ways in which they have shaped, and continue to shape, the
fabric of our lives. He challenges the innovation-centered stories
that have come to dominate recent histories of technology and
instead exposes the ways in which the old is sustained."--Chemical
Heritage
"Edgertons call for an appreciation of the ongoing significance of
old technology is a much needed corrective to technological
futurism."--KronoScope, Journal of the Study of Time
"Resembling a technological Charles Darwin, Edgerton convinces his
readers through the sheer weight of examples...Edgerton has
splendidly brought together many specialized studies into a single
polemical volume. Drawing on an impressively wide range of
secondary literature, he presents his arguments accessibly and with
political verve, making this a splendid book for students as well
as the notorious 'general reader'."--British Journal for the
History of Science
"The Shock of the Old is a fascinating recasting of twentieth
century history, but it is also a story for the present and the
future."--Booknotes Australia
"David Edgerton is on to something very important.The Shock of the
Old is one book that I intend to savour slowly and use."--David S.
Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and The Unbound
Prometheus
"Edgerton arrestingly challenges the claim that hi-tech innovation
is essential for progress and prosperity in the contemporary world.
He tells us why a variety of old technologies--from spinning wheels
and rickshaws to mosquito netting--play essential roles in today's
global life. Afascinating, thought-provoking book."--Daniel J.
Kevles, author of In the Name of Eugenics and The Baltimore
Case
"In this eminently readable book, David Edgerton takes a welcome
fresh look at the nature of technology. He does not just recite the
familiar heroic leaps of invention, nor does he serve as a
cheerleader for inflated promises of future breakthroughs; rather,
he emphasizes the importance of the workaday world of things that
are so much a part of what it means to live in the technological
present."--Henry Petroski, author of To Engineer Is Human and The
Evolution of Useful Things
"As fascinating in its details as in its arguments. In compact form
and accessible prose, Edgerton offers a new vision of modern
technological history, emphasizing staying power rather than
novelty. A rewarding read, it should become a standard in its
field."--J.R. McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun
"David Edgerton is an historian with an economist's eye. He can
deliver a cost-benefit analysis of the V-2 rocket and yet dig out
hundreds of historian's tales, of the rickshaw still in use, and
the killing lines in meatpacking. By asking us to look at the
history of actual use and actual advantage, he demolishes scores of
myths: about Teflon, DDT, the Atomic bomb, motor transport, and
maintaining your office building. This is technological history
brought out of the Romantic age of the Hero Inventor, male,
Western, imperial. Edgerton's heroism is our common human
ingenuity, in the Rio slum and in the Cambridge
laboratory."--Deirdre McCloskey, Professor of History and of
Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Edgerton's emphasis on the continued importance of so-calledold
and obsolete technologies is a much-needed remedy for modern hype
about the latest and greatest 'revolutionary' technological
innovation, and he offers a host of new insights into technology's
past and present."--Choice
"Provocative, concise, and elegant..."The Shock of the Old" is a
necessary reminder of just how important things are in our lives,
and how important we are in the life of things."--The New
Yorker
"Most histories of technology and considerations of the interaction
of technology and society stress invention and innovation. Thus
accounts of the 20th century typically progress from automobiles,
airplanes, and radio through rockets, nuclear power, and computers
to today's frontiers of
information, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. In opposition to
this future-focused approach, Edgerton offers a convincing case
that we ought to pay far more attention to what people actually
used and still use... fresh and accessible account..."--Science
Magazine
"The Shock of the Old is a pathbreaking work...a bold and
necessarily preliminary reconnaissance, in brief, in the direction
of a comprehensively contextualized view of technology."--American
Scientist
"The history of technology is often told as a history of key
inventions: the electric light bulb, the motor car, nuclear
weapons, and so on. The Shock of the Old is a lucid and completely
convincing rebuttal of that received narrative.--Journal of
American History
"David Edgerton's book has a provocative thesis that will stimulate
considerable discussion. The Shock of the Old will surely appear on
professorial reading lists for both undergraduate and graduate
students, as well as attracting the interest of general
readers."--Isis, The Journal of the History
of Science Society
"This refreshing new book offers a wonderfully sobering antidote to
the neotechnophilia that often characterizes our society. In his
romp through20th-century technology, Edgerton marvels not at the
progression of new technologies but at the persistence of old ones
and the ways in which they have
shaped, and continue to shape, the fabric of our lives. He
challenges the innovation-centered stories that have come to
dominate recent histories of technology and instead exposes the
ways in which the old is sustained."--Chemical Heritage
"Edgertons call for an appreciation of the ongoing significance of
old technology is a much needed corrective to technological
futurism."--KronoScope, Journal of the Study of Time
"Resembling a technological Charles Darwin, Edgerton convinces his
readers through the sheer weight of examples...Edgerton has
splendidly brought together many specialized studies into a single
polemical volume. Drawing on an impressively wide range of
secondary literature, he presents his arguments
accessibly and with political verve, making this a splendid book
for students as well as the notorious 'general reader'."--British
Journal for the History of Science
"The Shock of the Old is a fascinating recasting of twentieth
century history, but it is also a story for the present and the
future."--Booknotes Australia
"David Edgerton is on to something very important.The Shock of the
Old is one book that I intend to savour slowly and use."--David S.
Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and The Unbound
Prometheus
"Edgerton arrestingly challenges the claim that hi-tech innovation
is essential for progress and prosperity in the contemporary world.
He tells us why a variety of old technologies--from spinning wheels
and rickshaws to mosquito netting--play essential roles in today's
global life. Afascinating,
thought-provoking book."--Daniel J. Kevles, author of In the Name
of Eugenics and The Baltimore Case
"In this eminently readable book, David Edgerton takes a welcome
fresh look at the nature of technology. He does not just recite the
familiar heroic leaps of invention, nor does he serve as a
cheerleader for inflated promises of future breakthroughs; rather,
he emphasizes the importance of the
workaday world of things that are so much a part of what it means
to live in the technological present."--Henry Petroski, author of
To Engineer Is Human and The Evolution of Useful Things
"As fascinating in its details as in its arguments. In compact form
and accessible prose, Edgerton offers a new vision of modern
technological history, emphasizing staying power rather than
novelty. A rewarding read, it should become a standard in its
field."--J.R. McNeill, author of Something New
Under the Sun
"David Edgerton is an historian with an economist's eye. He can
deliver a cost-benefit analysis of the V-2 rocket and yet dig out
hundreds of historian's tales, of the rickshaw still in use, and
the killing lines in meatpacking. By asking us to look at the
history of actual use and actual advantage,
he demolishes scores of myths: about Teflon, DDT, the Atomic bomb,
motor transport, and maintaining your office building. This is
technological history brought out of the Romantic age of the Hero
Inventor, male, Western, imperial. Edgerton's heroism is our common
human ingenuity, in the Rio slum and
in the Cambridge laboratory."--Deirdre McCloskey, Professor of
History and of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Edgerton's emphasis on the continued importance ofso-called old
and obsolete technologies is a much-needed remedy for modern hype
about the latest and greatest 'revolutionary' technological
innovation, and he offers a host of new insights into technology's
past and present."--Choice
"Provocative, concise, and elegant..."The Shock of the Old" is a
necessary reminder of just how important things are in our lives,
and how important we are in the life of things."--The New
Yorker
"Most histories of technology and considerations of the interaction
of technology and society stress invention and innovation. Thus
accounts of the 20th century typically progress from automobiles,
airplanes, and radio through rockets, nuclear power, and computers
to today's frontiers of
information, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. In opposition to
this future-focused approach, Edgerton offers a convincing case
that we ought to pay far more attention to what people actually
used and still use... fresh and accessible account..."--Science
Magazine
"The Shock of the Old is a pathbreaking work...a bold and
necessarily preliminary reconnaissance, in brief, in the direction
of a comprehensively contextualized view of technology."--American
Scientist
"David Edgerton is on to something very important.The Shock of the
Old is one book that I intend to savour slowly and use."--David S.
Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and The Unbound
Prometheus
"Edgerton arrestingly challenges the claim that hi-tech innovation
is essential for progress and prosperity in the contemporary world.
He tells us why a variety of old technologies--from spinning wheels
and rickshaws to mosquito netting--play essential roles in today's
global life. A fascinating,
thought-provoking book."--Daniel J. Kevles, author of In the Name
of Eugenics and The Baltimore Case
"In this eminently readable book, David Edgerton takes a welcome
fresh lookat the nature of technology. He does not just recite the
familiar heroic leaps of invention, nor does he serve as a
cheerleader for inflated promises of future breakthroughs; rather,
he emphasizes the importance of the
workaday world of things that are so much a part of what it means
to live in the technological present."--Henry Petroski, author of
To Engineer Is Human and The Evolution of Useful Things
"As fascinating in its details as in its arguments. In compact form
and accessible prose, Edgerton offers a new vision of modern
technological history, emphasizing staying power rather than
novelty. A rewarding read, it should become a standard in its
field."--J.R. McNeill, author of Something New
Under the Sun
"David Edgerton is an historian with an economist's eye. He can
deliver a cost-benefit analysis of the V-2 rocket and yet dig out
hundreds of historian's tales, of the rickshaw still in use, and
the killing lines in meatpacking. By asking us to look at the
history of actual use and actual advantage,
he demolishes scores of myths: about Teflon, DDT, the Atomic bomb,
motor transport, and maintaining your office building. This is
technological history brought out of the Romantic age of the Hero
Inventor, male, Western, imperial. Edgerton's heroism is our common
human ingenuity, in the Rio slum and
in the Cambridge laboratory."--Deirdre McCloskey, Professor of
History and of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Most histories of technology and considerations of the interaction
of technology and society stress invention and innovation. Thus
accounts of the 20th century typically progress from automobiles,
airplanes, and radio through rockets, nuclear power, and computers
to today's frontiers of
information, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. In opposition to
this future-focused approach, Edgerton offers a convincing case
that we ought to pay far more attention to what people actually
used and still use... fresh and accessible account..."--Science
Magazine
"David Edgerton is on to something very important.The Shock of the
Old is one book that I intend to savour slowly and use."--David S.
Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and The Unbound
Prometheus
"Edgerton arrestingly challenges the claim that hi-tech innovation
is essential for progress and prosperity in the contemporary world.
He tells us why a variety of old technologies--from spinning wheels
and rickshaws to mosquito netting--play essential roles in today's
global life. A fascinating,
thought-provoking book."--Daniel J. Kevles, author of In the Name
of Eugenics and The Baltimore Case
"In this eminently readable book, David Edgerton takes a welcome
fresh look at the nature of technology. He does not just recite the
familiar heroic leaps of invention, nor does he serve as a
cheerleader for inflated promises of future breakthroughs; rather,
he emphasizes the importance of the
workaday world of things that are so much a part of what it means
to live in the technological present."--Henry Petroski, author of
To Engineer Is Human and The Evolution of Useful Things
"As fascinating in its details as in itsarguments. In compact form
and accessible prose, Edgerton offers a new vision of modern
technological history, emphasizing staying power rather than
novelty. A rewarding read, it should become a standard in its
field."--J.R. McNeill, author of Something New
Under the Sun
"David Edgerton is an historian with an economist's eye. He can
deliver a cost-benefit analysis of the V-2 rocket and yet dig out
hundreds of historian's tales, of the rickshaw still in use, and
the killing lines in meatpacking. By asking us to look at the
history of actual use and actual advantage,
he demolishes scores of myths: about Teflon, DDT, the Atomic bomb,
motor transport, and maintaining your office building. This is
technological history brought out of the Romantic age of the Hero
Inventor, male, Western, imperial. Edgerton's heroism is our common
human ingenuity, in the Rio slum and
in the Cambridge laboratory."--Deirdre McCloskey, Professor of
History and of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
"David Edgerton is on to something very important.The Shock of the
Old is one book that I intend to savour slowly and use."--David S.
Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and The Unbound
Prometheus
"Edgerton arrestingly challenges the claim that hi-tech innovation
is essential for progress and prosperity in the contemporary world.
He tells us why a variety of old technologies--from spinning wheels
and rickshaws to mosquito netting--play essential roles in today's
global life. A fascinating,
thought-provoking book."--Daniel J. Kevles, author of In the Name
of Eugenics and The Baltimore Case
"In this eminently readable book, David Edgerton takes a welcome
fresh look at the nature of technology. He does not just recite the
familiar heroic leaps of invention, nor does he serve as a
cheerleader for inflated promises of future breakthroughs; rather,
he emphasizes the importance of the
workaday world of things that are so much a part of what it means
to live in the technological present."--Henry Petroski, author of
To Engineer Is Human and The Evolution of Useful Things
"As fascinating in its details as in its arguments. In compact form
and accessible prose, Edgerton offers a new vision of modern
technological history, emphasizing staying power rather than
novelty. A rewarding read, it should become a standard in its
field."--J.R. McNeill, author of Something New
Under the Sun
"David Edgerton is an historian with an economist's eye. He can
deliver a cost-benefit analysis of the V-2 rocket and yet dig out
hundreds of historian's tales, of the rickshaw still in use, and
the killing lines in meatpacking. By asking us to look at the
history of actual use andactual advantage,
he demolishes scores of myths: about Teflon, DDT, the Atomic bomb,
motor transport, and maintaining your office building. This is
technological history brought out of the Romantic age of the Hero
Inventor, male, Western, imperial. Edgerton's heroism is our common
human ingenuity, in the Rio slum and
in the Cambridge laboratory."--Deirdre McCloskey, Professor of
History and of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
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