The Maze of Ingenuity: Ideas and Idealism in the Development of Technology

(Paperback, second edition)

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From cathedrals to star wars, Pacey looks at the interaction of technologies and society over the past 1000 years and uses that survey to argue for a more humane form of future technological development. This edition concentrates on Europe and North America and incorporates recent insights from the history and sociology of technology. A new series of chapters extends Pacey's discussion of the role of ideas and ideals in technology in the period since the industrial revolution.

Reviews

Here is a book that should immediately be put into paperback and placed in the hands of undergraduates everywhere and in all disciplines. Its subject matter ranges from the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages to the prophets of systems analysis in our own century. Yet Dr. Pacey is nowhere superficial (review of first edition) Nature

Author Bio

Arnold Pacey is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, Britain. He is the author of The Culture of Technology (MIT Press, 1983), Technology and World Civilization (MIT Press, 1991), and The Maze of Ingenuity, second edition (MIT Press, 1992).