A battleship which predated the Second World War also fought in the First Gulf War - and this for the Americans, too. The Nazi invasion of Russia used more horses than Napoleon's had.

This book is a history for grown-ups of all ages.' As that opening sentence indicates, this is a book that wants to show you Everything You Know Is Wrong - and as often as not, it succeeds. 'Much of what is written on the history of technology is for boys of all ages. Edgerton also exaggerates a bit in the other direction, because every old technology must have been invented once, isn't it? Nevertheless, a great read! (Rating 3.5 stars) This book is full of eye-openers, certainly, but also with the classical one-sidedness associated with this genre. And he stresses that maintenance of new technology often comes with a bigger cost than the benefits it offers in the short term. The author also debunks a lot of myths, like that teflon was developed by the space industry (it already existed in 1938). A classic one is this that the horse made a greater contribution to the nazi conquests than the V2, but there's also the fact that bicycles and motorcycles were more important in the initial growth of East-Asian economies than cars or trucks. In fact, old technologies in particular always were decisive, in wars and in everyday situations. The central these is: in historiography, we focus too much on discoveries, new technology and innovation. 'information age.' A provocative history, The Shock of the Old provides an entirely new way of looking historically at the relationship between invention and innovation.īrilliant, provocative book about the history of technology, with many surprising views.

Edgerton reassesses the significance of such acclaimed inventions as the Pill and information technology, and underscores the continued importance of unheralded technology, debunking many notions about the implications of the

Indeed, many highly touted technologies, from the V-2 rocket to the Concorde jet, have been costly failures, while many mundane discoveries, like corrugated iron, become hugely important around the world. He challenges us to view the history of technology in terms of what everyday people have actually used-and continue to use-rather than just sophisticated inventions. Now, in The Shock of the Old, David Edgerton offers a startling new and fresh way of thinking about the history of technology, radically revising our ideas about the interaction of technology and society in the past and in the present. Wells to the press releases of NASA, we are awash in clichéd claims about high technology's ability to change the course of history.

The shock of the new book