Without groundbreaking inventions and technical progress, the last 500 years of human history would have been very different. From printing and electricity to railways and nuclear fission to the forerunners of the technologies found in today’s computers and smartphones, Ronald D. Gerste presents innovations in his book that have had a lasting impact on the world.
The author does not have in mind a strictly chronological and complete history of technology. Instead, in each of the twelve chapters, which are written in a lively and accessible manner, he devotes himself to a special moment of technological glory and its protagonists. A small world of its own is always opening up, with connections being made again and again and the positive and negative sides of the respective technology being pointed out. It becomes clear that Johannes Gutenberg, Thomas Alva Edison, J. Robert Oppenheimer and others were all brilliant visionaries. But behind the development of most innovations was real competition as well as the ideas and efforts of many bright minds – including women who have long been “overlooked” by the public, such as Ada Lovelace or Lise Meitner.
A book that is as entertaining as it is educational and will make you want to delve deeper into some of the people featured and their inventions. Christopher Walter
Ronald D. Barley
How technology makes history
Klett-Cotta Verlag, 304 pages, € 24.–
ISBN 978-3-608-98801-7