Headrick D. Technology: A World History

Oxford University Press, Inc., 2009. — 161 p. — (New Oxford World History). — ISBN 978-0195156485, 0195338219."The history of humans and technology is a long one, going back millions of years to the use of stones as tools and to their fashioning into more efficient devices through skillful flaking. Ancient peoples discovered the use of fi re as a survival technology, only much later devising increasingly complicated systems of water management for irrigation and later still for hydroelectric power and many other uses. As communications technology developed closer to our own times, it brought people into greater contact and made them more knowledgeable and cosmopolitan. Medical and agricultural technology improved life expectancy, especially in our modern era; artificial organs could replace dying ones, and chemical and nuclear medicines could stop diseases such as cancers in their tracks.
This book is part of the New Oxford World History, an innovative series that offers readers an informed, lively, and up-to-date history of the world and its people that represents a significant change from the old world history. Only a few years ago, world history generally amounted to a history of the West—Europe and the United States—with small amounts of information from the rest of the world. Some versions of the old world history drew attention to every part of the world except Europe and the United States. Readers of that kind of world history could get the impression that somehow the rest of the world was made up of exotic people who had strange customs and spoke difficult languages. Still another kind of old world history presented the story of areas or peoples of the world by focusing primarily on the achievements of great civilizations. One learned of great buildings, influential world religions, and mighty rulers but little of ordinary people or more general economic and social patterns. Interactions among the world’s peoples were often told from only one perspective.". Bonnie G. Smith and Anand A. Yang.Editors’ Preface.
Stone Age Technology.
Hydraulic Civilizations (4000–1500bce).
Iron, Horses, and Empires (1500bce–500ce).
Postclassical and Medieval Revolutions (500–400).
An Age of Global Interactions (1300–1800).
The First Industrial Revolution (1750–1869).
The Acceleration of Change (1869–1939).
Toward a Postindustrial World (1939–2007).
Chronology.
Notes.
Further Reading.
Web Sites.