Gies, Frances.
New York : HarperCollins Publishers, c1994.
Added to CLICnet on 04/10/2014
Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-343) and index.
- 1. Nimrod’s Tower, Noah’s Ark — 2. Triumphs and Failures of Ancient Technology — 3. Not So Dark Ages: A.D. 500-900 — 4. Asian Connection — 5. Technology of the Commercial Revolution: 900-1200 — 6. High Middle Ages: 1200-1400 — 7. Leonardo and Columbus: The End of the Middle Ages.
- In this account of Europe’s rise to world leadership in technology, Frances and Joseph Gies make use of recent scholarship to destroy two time-honored myths. Myth One: that Europe’s leap forward occurred suddenly in the Renaissance, following centuries of medieval stagnation. Not so, say the Gieses: Early modern technology and experimental science were direct outgrowths of the decisive innovations of medieval Europe, in the tools and techniques of agriculture, craft industry, metallurgy, building construction, navigation, and war. Myth Two: that Europe achieved its primacy through Western superiority. On the contrary, the authors report, many of Europe’s most important inventions – the horse harness, the stirrup, the magnetic compass, cotton and silk cultivation and manufacture, papermaking, firearms, Arabic numerals – had their origins outside Europe, in China, India, and Islam. The Gieses show how Europe synthesized its own innovations – the three-field system, water power in industry, the full-rigged ship, the putting-out system – into a powerful new combination of technology, economics, and politics. From the expansion of medieval man’s capabilities, the voyage of Columbus with all its fateful consequences is seen as an inevitable product, while even the genius of Leonardo da Vinci emerges from the context of earlier and lesser-known dreamers and tinkerers. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel is illustrated with more than 90 photographs and drawings. It is a Split Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. –BOOK JACKET.
Subjects:
Requested by Bibus, K.