From Habilis to Steve Jobs: Two Million Years of Technology

Volume 1: From Early Humans to the Industrial Revolution

Massimo Guarnieri (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

2026
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-032-17241-9 (ISBN)

Infos

This book offers readers a comprehensive view of technological development extensive in time, as the title suggests, but also expansive in space, unbounded by geography. It is surprising how often the history of technology is overlooked, despite our increasing dependence on it.

Mathematical formulas are virtually absent. Instead, I have aimed to illustrate facts and reflections that may come as unexpected, lying outside common knowledge, yet capable of stimulating thought and helping readers grasp interactions and implications that are not immediately apparent. The book explores many technological innovations at least the most significant ones, though inevitably not all highlighting how they evolved through a complex interplay of mutual influence with politics, economics, culture, and religion. It also examines how different societies have adopted similar technologies, and how the same technologies have triggered different reactions across societies and eras.

The book seeks to explain why some technologies have failed while others have succeeded. Looking to the future, it considers which technologies seem most promising today. Yet such promises may still be broken, as every technology has a dark side and it is up to those who shape and use it to turn it into a force for good or for harm. Ever since a chipped flint knife could be used either to secure food for survival or to kill another man, the same dilemma has persisted. Two million years later, it remains unchanged.

This first volume examines the history of technology from its earliest emergence to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, tracing developments across diverse world regions and civilizations. 

 

Autor

Massimo Guarnieri was born near Venice, Italy, in 1955. He received the Laurea (Hons.) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Padua in 1979; the Diploma in Plasma and Thermonuclear Fusion Research in 1982; an MBA from CUOA (Italy) in 1985; and the Ph.D. in Electrical Science from the University of Rome in 1987. He joined the Italian National Research Council in 1982 and the University of Padua in 1983, where he has been a Full Professor of Electrical Engineering since 2000.

For more than twenty years, his research focused on the analysis, design, construction, and operation of electromagnetic systems and power supplies for magnetic-confinement thermonuclear fusion experiments, including Eta-Beta II and RFX. He led the RFX Magnetic System Group, responsible for the device s major inductive systems (diameters up to 8 m, 50 kA, 200 kV).

 

Inhalt

1. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.- 2. THE STONE AGE UP TO THE MESOLITHIC.- 3. NEOLITHIC AND THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION.- 4. FROM STONE TO BRONZE.- 5. FROM PREHISTORY TO HISTORY.- 6. BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS.- 7. IRON AGE CIVILIZATIONS.- 8. GREEK AND HELLENISTIC CIVILIZATION.- 9. ROMAN CIVILIZATION.- 10. EARLY MIDDLE AGES AND ISLAM.- AGE OF COMMUNES AND CRUSADES.- 12. CRISES AND DEVELOPMENTS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.- 13. THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE.- 14. THE DISCOVERY OF OTHER WORLDS.- 15. THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUE.- 16. THE RISE OF ENLIGHTENMENT AND STEAM.- 17. TOWARD THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. - BLIOGRAPHY.- INDEXES.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 14.7.2026
• Zusatzinfo: Approx. 500 p.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 155 x 235 mm
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: history of engineering • History of technology • science and technology • social impact of technology • technological evolution • Technology and economics evolution • Worldwide technology evolution
• ISBN-10: 3-032-17241-1 / 3032172411
• ISBN-13: 978-3-032-17241-9 / 9783032172419
• Zustand: Neuware