Technics and Civilization

Drawing upon art, science, philosophy, and the history of culture, this title explains the origin of the machine age and traces its social results, asserting that the development of modern technology had its roots in the Middle Ages rather than the Industrial Revolution.

Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) was a writer whose scope encompassed literary criticism, architecture, history, urban sociology, and philosophy. The author of over thirty books, he was also the architectural critic for The New Yorker for over thirty years. He was eventually honored with the United States Medal of Freedom and Knight of the Order of the British Empire.

"The questions posed in the first paragraph of Technics and Civilization still deserve our attention, nearly three-quarters of a century after they were written." - Technology and Culture "A brilliant historical and critical account of the effect of the artificial environment on man and of man on the environment, a necessary account, one for which we have waited too long in English." - New York Times"