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krayfish1 's review for:
A fascinating read about the 1000's to 1200's.
First four chapters were my favorite and talk about:
*Energy harvesting (water mills, windmills, dams, tidal energy mills) and one of the first and longest lasting corporations developed around water mills on a dam.
*How farmers developed a better way to harness horses (so they don't strangle), which vastly increased the amount of farmland that could be plowed.
*The 1000's to 1200's also saw an increase in coal and iron mining.
*And that this increase led to deforestation, and air pollution near iron furnaces.
The next two chapters talk about how skilled laborers were treated (textiles, miners, building construction, architects).
Chapter 7 talks about the development of the mechanical clock.
Chapter 8 talks about the extensive translation work done in the 1100's on works describing mathematics, science, and technology and begins talking about specific people. I found this part a little weaker, because the argument put forth kept getting lost in admiration of great men of the period.
Chapter 9 and the Epilogue talk about how this period of technological advance ended and begins drawing parallels between the industrial revolution of the Middle Ages and the current industrial revolution. Considering that this was written in the 1970's partially based on work done in the 1950's, the author is extremely pessimistic. He tries to predict the future based on history repeating itself (and predicts that it's all downhill from here). Unlike the decline of the Middle Ages, however, we haven't been hit with the Black Death. And though the US rejected supporting supersonic transportation in 1971, we hit another period of technological advance with computers. Also, it's hard to believe that caring about the environment we live in is somehow a bad sign, or that restrained population growth is bad.
First four chapters were my favorite and talk about:
*Energy harvesting (water mills, windmills, dams, tidal energy mills) and one of the first and longest lasting corporations developed around water mills on a dam.
*How farmers developed a better way to harness horses (so they don't strangle), which vastly increased the amount of farmland that could be plowed.
*The 1000's to 1200's also saw an increase in coal and iron mining.
*And that this increase led to deforestation, and air pollution near iron furnaces.
The next two chapters talk about how skilled laborers were treated (textiles, miners, building construction, architects).
Chapter 7 talks about the development of the mechanical clock.
Chapter 8 talks about the extensive translation work done in the 1100's on works describing mathematics, science, and technology and begins talking about specific people. I found this part a little weaker, because the argument put forth kept getting lost in admiration of great men of the period.
Chapter 9 and the Epilogue talk about how this period of technological advance ended and begins drawing parallels between the industrial revolution of the Middle Ages and the current industrial revolution. Considering that this was written in the 1970's partially based on work done in the 1950's, the author is extremely pessimistic. He tries to predict the future based on history repeating itself (and predicts that it's all downhill from here). Unlike the decline of the Middle Ages, however, we haven't been hit with the Black Death. And though the US rejected supporting supersonic transportation in 1971, we hit another period of technological advance with computers. Also, it's hard to believe that caring about the environment we live in is somehow a bad sign, or that restrained population growth is bad.