academic researchers/readers of mastodon: is there a solid historical book (books?) that documents and explores the transition from the mechanical age to the age of “modern” technology as someone like heidegger understands the term technology?
i’m imagining a book that interprets the social and cultural transformations between the late medieval and victorian periods, from older conceptions of morality and mechanism to newer ideas about individualism and automation? eg. documenting not only demographic changes, but also the ways of thinking about people that were preconditions for modern technological thought.
i realize this is a rather nebulous request covering a huge time span, but my background is in the philosophy of science and not british history literature.
#academicmastodon #history
answering my own question yesterday re: heideggerian technological change and the first industrial revolution:
there does not seem to be any specific agreed upon text that covers the above historical question - however, i’ve cobbled together a patchwork of related readings:
Miller, Adam. (Dissertation). Enframing and Enlightenment:
A Phenomenological History of Eighteenth-Century British Science, Technology, and Literature. https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/bitstream/handle/1803/13807/miller_adam.pdf?sequence=1Finberg, H.P.R. Tavistock Abbey: A Study in the Social and Economic History of Devon.
Gies, Frances and Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village.
Gies, Frances and Joseph. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages.
Gimpel, J. Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages.
Landes, David S. The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present.
Mantoux, Paul. The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century.
McNeil, Ian. An Encyclopaedia of the history of technolology.
Toynbee, Arnold. Lectures on the industrial revolution of the 18th century in england. https://archive.org/details/LecturesOnTheIndustrialRevolutionOfThe18thCenturyInEngland
adding to the aforementioned bibliography of books concerning the intersection of the 15th-19th centuries and technological change. found them at a local used bookstore.
web searches for broad topics like this are often fruitless. a good library or academic bookstore already has this presorted by topic.
how could i forget these two absolutely hilarious and informative illustrated texts on medieval and 18th century life.
i’ve had them sitting on the shelves for years, and realized they make a compelling visual reference
#bookstodon #illustration #books
@[email protected] Game artists really need to read this. Too many “realistic” games where the castles look like out of Disneyland and ships are shoeboxes with toothpick masts
@[email protected] totally agree!
@[email protected] !!! I’d completely forgotten that these existed!
@[email protected] i fear that most of the civilized world has forgotten too. i found them dirt cheap at thrift shops. i doubt they’re still in print, but thankfully they are dirt cheap from used book sellers
@[email protected] Marvellous!
@[email protected] Dang, there’s a memory unlocked!
adding two incredible finds to this medieval technology reading/research bibliography: Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel by Frances and Joseph Gies. The bookseller immediately recognized it and exclaimed “I appreciate a writer with the common touch!”
The second book - Tavistock Abbey: A Study in the Social and Economic History of Devon by HPR Finberg was an accidental find. While it does not speak to technological change in the late middle ages, it speaks to the social and cultural life of an abbey and its surrounding village.
#books #bookstodon
@[email protected] looking into Foucault’s ideas about then emerging disciplinary regimes on the body could be of interest, but perhaps that is a bit off from being a solid historical account
@[email protected] yeah, i know what you mean - and i think that strays beyond my immediate historical needs. i’m basically looking for someone to fill in a lot of the historical gaps that heidegger leaves wide open with his historical examples (grist mills, hydroelectric dams, etc). foucault is his own wilderness anyway 😅
