Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume I
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- Book part
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Historiography, method, and themes
- 2 Writing world history
- 3 The evolution of world histories
- 4 Evolution, rupture, and periodization
- 5 From divergence to convergence: centrifugal and centripetal forces in history
- 6 Belief, knowledge, and language
- 7 Historiography of technology and innovation
- 8 Fire and fuel in human history
- 9 Family history and world history: from domestication to biopolitics
- 10 Gendered world history
- 11 What does anthropology contribute to world history?
- 12 Migration in human history
- Part II The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
- Index
- References
7 - Historiography of technology and innovation
from Part I - Historiography, method, and themes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume I
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- Book part
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Historiography, method, and themes
- 2 Writing world history
- 3 The evolution of world histories
- 4 Evolution, rupture, and periodization
- 5 From divergence to convergence: centrifugal and centripetal forces in history
- 6 Belief, knowledge, and language
- 7 Historiography of technology and innovation
- 8 Fire and fuel in human history
- 9 Family history and world history: from domestication to biopolitics
- 10 Gendered world history
- 11 What does anthropology contribute to world history?
- 12 Migration in human history
- Part II The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
- Index
- References
Summary
In the mid-nineteenth century, along with the first stirrings of interest in the history of technology among the literate elite, a phenomenon appeared that was to have a far greater impact upon the general population. World's fairs and other technological exhibitions privileged the most recent innovations rather than historical ones. It may seem odd to list exhibitions, museums, and magazines in a chapter on the historiography of technology, but popular perceptions and enthusiasms for various technologies form a presence around which historians of technology carry out their scholarly pursuits, for popular ideas on technology and its history are imbued with a philosophy historians call Whiggism. There are two aspects to the Whiggish interpretation of history. The first is a belief in progress. The second side of the popular history of technology: patriotism. Paralleling the explosion of scholarship was a continued popular interest in technology. In recent years, SHOT and the technological history field have broadened their perspective in several directions.
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- The Cambridge World History , pp. 165 - 184Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
Further reading
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Cowan, Ruth Schwartz, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technologies from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, New York: Basic Books, 1983.Google Scholar
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Smith, Merritt Roe, Harper's Ferry Armory and the New Technology, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
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