History of Technology Volume 29
Technology in China
Published on 23. December 2009
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-1-4411-3611-4 (ISBN)
Description
This book offers a new way of looking at Chinese history through their technological advances. The technical problems confronting different societies and periods and the measures taken to solve them form the concern of this annual collection of essays. It deals with the history of technical discovery and change and explores the relationship of technology to other aspects of life - social, cultural and economic - and shows how technological development has shaped, and been shaped by, the society in which it occurred.
Reviews / Votes
"This volume of the series is devoted entirely to two special issues. The first explores the divergence between Chinese and European technology during the early modern period. Restating the conventional question of why Chinese technology failed, five studies show how the progression there was logical, and it was Europe that veered off. They cover cultural logics for the regime of useful knowledge and the movers and shakers of knowledge during the Ming and early Qing around 1400-1700, and provide a historiographical survey and elaboration and a review of recent revisionist scholarship in Western languages. The second issue challenges the assumption--by academics, of course--that practical knowledge was bestowed by the intellectual elite on technicians during the early modern period in Europe. A more accurate representation, six papers argue, is that the two groups mingled, artisans recognizing the value of a knowledge base, and experimenters learning techniques and identifying problems to solve. Topics there include crystals and the recreation of nature in 17th-century garden caves and cabinets, the inventions and identity of Ivan Petrovich Kulibin in 18th-century St. Petersburg, and Dutch-Japanese trade during the second half of the 18th century." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
US School Grade: From Preschool to Kindergarten
Illustrations
20
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
514 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4411-3611-4 (9781441136114)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
06/2010
1st Edition
Continuum Publishing Corporation
€185.19
Available for download
Person
Ian Inkster is Research Professor of International History, Faculty of Humanities, The Nottingham Trent University, UK.
Content
Ian Inkster, 'Introduction to volume 29'.; Special Issue: Kent Deng and Jerry Liu ed., Chinese Technological History: The Great Divergence.; Deng and Liu, 'Editorial Introduction'.; Patrick K. O'Brien, 'The Needham Question Updated: a Historiographical Survey and Elaboration'.; Jerry C.Y. Liu, 'Cultural Logics for the Regime of Useful Knowledge during the Ming and early Qing China c. 1400-1700'.; Harriet T. Zurndorfer, 'China and Science on the Eve of the 'Great Divergence' 1600-1800: A review of recent revisionist scholarship in Western languages'.; Kent Deng, 'Movers and Shakers of Knowledge in China during the Ming-Qing Period'.; Special Issue: Lissa Roberts and Ian Inkster ed., Mindful Hand.; Lissa Roberts, 'Introduction'.; Alette Fleischer, 'From darkness into light: The transformation of rock crystal into an object of adornment and revelation'.; Chandra Mukerji, 'The Mindful Hands of Peasants: Construction of an Eight-Lock Staircase at Fonseranes, 1678-1679'.; Simon Werrett, 'Enlightenment in Russian Hands: Instruments, Inventions, and Ivan Petrovich Kulibin in Eighteenth-Century St. Petersburg'.; Lissa Roberts, 'The mindful hand goes to Japan. Dutch-Japanese trade in the second half of the eighteenth century'.; Ian Inkster, 'Conclusions'.