Leonardo to the Internet, Thomas J. Misa
Leonardo to the Internet, Thomas J. Misa
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Leonardo to the Internet
Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present 3rd Edition

Author: Thomas J. Misa

Narrator: Jonathan Todd Ross

Unabridged: 19 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/19/2022


Synopsis

Now updated—A comprehensive, 500-year history of technology in society.

Historian Thomas J. Misa's sweeping history of the relationship between technology and society over the past 500 years reveals how technological innovations have shaped—and have been shaped by—the cultures in which they
arose. Spanning the preindustrial past, the age of scientific, political, and industrial revolutions, as well as the more recent eras of imperialism, modernism, and global security, this compelling work evaluates what Misa calls "the question of technology."

In this edition, Misa brings his acclaimed text up to date by drawing on current scholarship while retaining sharply drawn portraits of individual people, artifacts, and systems. Each chapter has been honed to relate to contemporary concerns.

Globalization, Misa argues, looks differently considering today's virulent nationalism, cultural chauvinism, and trade wars. A new chapter focuses on the digital age from 1990 to 2016. The book also examines how today's unsustainable
energy systems, insecure information networks, and vulnerable global shipping have helped foster geopolitical risks and instability and takes a look at the coronavirus pandemic from the perspective of Wuhan, China's high tech district.

A masterful analysis of how technology and culture have influenced each other over five centuries, Leonardo to the Internet frames a history that illuminates modern-day problems and prospects faced by our technology-dependent world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Marilu on July 24, 2017

I read this book for a Technology Course. It was interesting and relevant to the course but difficult to understand and follow sometimes. Recommend to anyone who enjoys learning about History and Technology but it is a heavy read.......more

Goodreads review by Frank on May 07, 2012

This book obviously covers a much wider swath of the history of technology than Cowan's book I just reviewed, touching on technology everywhere from Renaissance Italy to colonial India to contemporary Thailand, so it must perforce focus on certain illustrative stories. Unfortunately, not every story......more

Goodreads review by Scott on December 17, 2020

Many people hold one of two views of technology and culture. Some think that technology determines how society evolve. Others contend that human affairs express themselves in the technologies they produce. Misa contends that technology and culture evolve together in a mixed group; neither determine......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on April 25, 2019

I read this book for a technology course at school and found it quite interesting. It is a good gateway into understanding just how much technology has affected society and how technology has, in turn, been shaped to suit the needs of governments and companies.......more

Goodreads review by Jeremy on February 25, 2018

Fantastically well-researched. Readable, but not terribly exciting.......more