Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present 3rd Edition

Written by Thomas J. Misa

Narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705062678

Reviews for Leonardo to the Internet

[scottjpearson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 the other. He makes this case by examining this evolution, as his title promises, from the days of Leonardo until the present.Generally, Misa sees the history of technology moving from court to commerce, then from industry to empire, then from science to modernism and warfare, and finally from globalization to insecurity. He charts this progression through historical exemplars, like the growth of Dutch commerce or the extension of the British Empire. As one would expect from a first-rate history like this, he voyages in-depth into each topic, usually from many angles.In so doing, he notes common pitfalls cultures fall into over time. For example, the countries that most embraced nuclear technology were late to the game in wind and solar power. Or the British were late to adopt new scientific advances because their energies were concentrated on continuing imperial power. As an American working in medical technology, I try to see market and societal evolution and appreciate how Misa equips me to anticipate the future by understanding the past.The book is written in clear English. A prior intellectual investment in technology is helpful to appreciate all the nuance of this topic, per Misa’s presentation. College and university courses are appropriate venues for this text. Also, those who have labored around technology post-education will appreciate descriptions of new epochs, especially the analysis of our situation post-9/11.This book was originally written in 2004 and re-published in 2011. Nonetheless, I wonder what Misa might say (perhaps in a third edition?) about global intellectual stagnation through nationalist politics in 2015-2020. Surely technology and society help to push the human race towards unreached intellectual heights, and social and tribal warfare as we’ve seen does not help us reach these laudable, universal aims. Does history show us a way forward? That’s the question I’d like to ask Misa.