Leonardo to the Internet. Technology & Culture from the Renaissance to the Present

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The image of the lone inventor transforming society captivates the public, but technologies are actually products of complex social and cultural processes. Historian Thomas J. Misa offers a comprehensive history of the interplay between technology and society since the Renaissance, illustrating how innovations are shaped by their cultural contexts and, conversely, how they influence those cultures. Through engaging case studies, Misa explores the contributions of figures like Johann Gutenberg and Leonardo da Vinci, as well as the evolution of beer brewing in industrial London and the late twentieth-century telecommunications revolution. Misa's narrative spans eight thematic chapters, starting from the Renaissance court system in Western Europe and its intersection with technology, to Holland's commercial expansion and Britain's industrial revolution. He examines the connections between technology, imperialism, and trade in the nineteenth century, and the application of scientific advancements in industry during the early twentieth century in Germany and the U.S. The analysis progresses to the impact of mass-produced consumer goods on daily life, the rise of the military-industrial complex during World War II, and the technological innovations of the Cold War. Misa concludes with a thought-provoking essay on contemporary technological choices and their implications for the future society we envision. This masterful work pro