☰ Menu
Join/Renew SHOT Contribute to SHOT

A Basic Bibliography of Works in the Field

The following bibliography was assembled for and appears as part of Technology in World History, a 7 volume set, edited by W. Bernard Carlson etal. and published by Oxford University Press (2005).

General
Basalla, George.  The Evolution of Technology.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Bunch, Bryan, and Hellemans, Alexander.  The Timetable of Technology: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Technology.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

Cardwell, Donald.  The Norton History of Technology.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.

Carlson, W. Bernard.  Ed. Technology in World History, 7 vols.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Daumas, Maurice, Ed. A History of Technology and Invention, 3 vols.  New York: Crown, 1969. (originally published in French).

De Camp, L. Sprague.  The Ancient Engineers.   New York: Ballantine, 1963.

Diamond, Jared.  Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1999.

Freeman, Chris and Louca, Francisco.  As Time Goes by: From the Industrial Revolution to the Information Revolution.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

James, Peter and Thorpe, Nick.  Ancient Inventions.  New York: Ballantine, 1994.

Kranzberg, Melvin and Pursell, Carroll W., Jr.  Technology in Western Civilization, 2 vols.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.

Macaulay, David.  The New Way Things Work.  Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1998.

McClellan, James E. and Dorn, Harold.  Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

McNeil, Ian, Ed. An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology.  London: Routledge, 1990.

McNeill, William H.  A World History, 4th ed.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Mokyr, Joel.  The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Mumford, Lewis.  Technics and Civilization.  New York: Harcourt, 1934.

Pacey, Arnold.  Technology in World Civilization:  A Thousand-Year History.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.

Petoski, Henry. The Evolution of Useful Things.  New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1992.

Selin, Helaine, Ed. Encylopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures.  Dordrecht, Netherlands and Boston: Kluwer, 1997.

Singer, Charles, et. al. A History of Technology, 8 vols.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1956-84.

Williams, Trevor I. et al.  A History of Invention: From Stone Axes to Silicon Chips. New York: Facts on File, 2000.

The Stone Age
Bacchin, Giorgio.  Day With Homo Erectus.  Milbeck Press, 2003.

Campbell, Bernard G.  Humankind Emerging.  New York: Allyn & Bacon, 1999 (8th edition).

Fagan, Brian M.  The Great Journey: The Peopling of America.   London: Thames & Hudson, 1999.

Johanson, Donald.  Lucy’s Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor.   New York: William Morrow, 1989.

Klein, Richard G.  The Dawn of Human Culture.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

Lauber, Patricia.  Painters of the Caves.  Washington, DC: National Geographic, 1998.

Malone, Caroline and Stone Bernard, Nancy.  Stonehenge.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Schick, Kathy D., and Toth, Nicholas.  Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

Smith, Bruce D.  The Emergence of Agriculture.  New York: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1994.

Tattersall, Ian.  The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives.  New York: Hungry Minds, 1999.

Ancient Egypt
Baines, John and Malek, Jaromir.  Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt.  Rev. Ed. Checkmark Books, 2000.

Casson, Lionel.  Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt.  Rev. Ed. Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Editors of Time-Life Books.  What Life was Like on the Banks of the Nile.  Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, n.d.

Freeman, Charles.  Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Shaw, Ian, Ed.  The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Silverman, David P.  Ancient Egypt.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Wilkinson, Richard H.  The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt.  London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.

Ancient and Classical India
Allchin, Bridget.  Origins of a Civilization: The Prehistory and Early Archaeology of South Asia.  New Delhi and New York: Viking, 1997.

Keay, John.  India: A History.  Grove, 2001.

Kenoyer, Jonathan M.  Ancient cities of the Indus Civilization.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

McIntosh, Jane R.  A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization.  Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 2001.

Early China
Bagley, Robert (ed).  Ancient Sichuan: Treasures from a Lost Civilization.  Seattle: Seattle Art Museum and Princeton University Press, 2001.

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley.  The Cambridge Illustrated History of China.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Keightley, David N.  Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It Became Chinese. In Paul S. Ropp (ed), Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990: 15-54.

Ledderose, Lothar.  Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Needham, Joseph.  Science and Civilization in China. 6 Vols.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954.

Rawson, Jessica (ed).  Mysteries of Ancient China: New Discoveries from the Early Dynasties.  London: British Museum, 1996.

Shaughnessy, Edward L. (ed.)  China: Empire and Civilization.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

The Ancient Mediterranean
Amos, H. D. and Lang, G. P.  These Were the Greeks.  New York: Dufour, 1997.

Drews, Robert.  The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Fitton, J. Lesley. Minoans.  London: British Museum, 2002.

Gould, Richard A. Archaeology and the Social History of Ships.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Kitto, H. D. F.  The Greeks.  London: Penguin, 1991.

MacQueen, J. G. Hittites and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor.  London: Thames & Hudson, 1986.

Markoe, Glenn E. Phoenicians.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Robbins, Manuel.  Collapse of the Bronze Age: The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea.  New York: Writers Club, 2001.

Robinson, Andrew.  Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Rostoker, William and Bronson, Bennett.  Pre-Industrial Iron:  Its Technology and Ethnology.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania (University Museum Archaomaterials Monograph #1), 1990.

Sandars, Nancy K.  The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean.  1250-1150 B.C.  New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1978.
Sarton, George.  Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C.  New York: Dover, 1993.

Trippett, Frank.  The First Horsemen.  New York: Little Brown, 1975.

The Romans
Adkins, Lesley and Adkins, Roy A.  Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Casson, Lionel.  Everyday Life in Ancient Rome.  Rev. Ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Dillon, Ellis.  Rome under the Emperors.  Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1974.

Hamey, L. A. and Hamey, J. A. The Roman Engineers.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Hill, Donald.  A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times.  London: Routledge, 1996.

Landels, John G.  Engineering in the Ancient World.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

Le Glay, Marcel et al.  A History of Rome, 2 ed.  Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2001.

Liberati, Anna Maria and Bourbon, Fabio.  Ancient Rome:  History of a Civilization that Ruled the World.  New York: Barnes & Noble, 2000.

White, K. D.  Greek and Roman Technology.  London:  Thames and Hudson, 1984.

Medieval Europe
Blair, John and Nigel Ramsay, eds. English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, Techniques, Products.  London: Hambeldon Press, 1991.

Cipolla, Carlo M. Clocks and Culture, 1300-1700.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1978.

Cipolla, Carlo M. Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700.  Manhattan, KS:  Sunflower University Press, 1965.

DeVries, Kelly.  Medieval Military Technology.  Lewiston, NY: Broadview Press, 1992.

Dohrn-Van Rossum, Gerhard.  History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders. trans. Thomas Dunlap Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Epstein, Steven A. Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

Febvre, Lucien, and Henri-Jean Martin.  The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1480-1800. trans. David Gerard, London: Verso, 1990.

Fitchen, John.  The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals: A Study of Medieval Vault Erection.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.

Friedman, John Block and Kristen Mossler Figg et al., eds.  Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia.  New York:  Garland Publishing, 2000.

Gies, Frances and Joseph Gies.  Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages.  New York: Harper Collins, 1994.

Gimpel, Jean.  The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages.  Hammondsworth, Middlesex:  Penguin Books, 1976.

Hannawalt, Barbara A., ed.  Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe.  Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1986.

Long, Pamela O.  Technology, Society, and Culture in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 1300-1600.  Washington, D.C.: Society for the History of Technology and American Historical Association, 2000.

Mark, Robert.  Light, Wind, and Structure: The Mystery of the Master Builders.  Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1990.

Strayer, Joseph, ed. Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 13 Vols. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1982-1989.

White, Lynn Jr.  Medieval Technology and Social Change.  London: Oxford University Press, 1962.

White, Lynn Jr.  Medieval Religion and Technology.  Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978.

The Islamic Empire
Ayalon, David.  Gunpowder and Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom.  London: Valentine, Mitchell, 1956.

Buckley, R. P. The Book of the Islamic Market Inspector.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Bulliet, Richard.  The Camel and the Wheel.  Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1975.

Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. ten volumes to date (Leiden, E. J. Bill, 1960–)

Glick, Thomas F. Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.

Goitein, S. D. A Mediterranean Society, Vol. I: Economic Foundations.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Hill, Donald R. and al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. Islamic Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Ibn, Khaldn.  The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History.  Franz Rosenthal, trans. 3 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958.

King, David A. Astronomy and Islamic Society: Qibla, Gnomics and Timekeeping.  R. Roshed, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, 3 vols. (London: Routledge, 19xx), I, 128-184.

King, David A.  On the Role of the Muezzin and the Muwaqqit in Medieval Islamic Society, in F. J. Ragep and S. P. Ragep, eds., Tradition, Transmission, Transformation (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1996), pp. 285-344.

Schioler, Thorkild.  Roman and Islamic Water-Lifting Wheels.  Copenhagen: Odense University Press, 1973.

Watson, Andrew M. Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Late Imperial China
Bray, Francesca.  The Rice Economies: Technology and Development in Asian Societies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1986 (repr. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994).

Bray, Francesca.  Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Brook, Timothy.  The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Knapp, Ronald.  China’s Vernacular Architecture:  House Form and Culture.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989.

Levathes, Louise.  When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne. 1405-1433. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

Temple, Robert.  The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention.  New York and London, Touchstone, 1986.

Waley-Cohen, Joanna.  The Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History. New York: Norton, 1999.

Sub-Saharan Africa
Austen, Ralph.  African Economic History.  London: NH: Heinemann, 1987.

Eyo, Ekpo and Willett, Frank.  Treasures of Ancient Nigeria.  Detroit Institute of Arts/Knopf, 1980.

Herbert, Eugenia.  Iron, Gender and Power: Rituals of Transformation in African Societies.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.

Iliffe, John. Africans: The History of a Continent.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Shaw, Thurstan et al., eds.  The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns.  London: Routledge, 1993.

Vogel, Joseph O. ed. Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1997.

Welsby, Derek A.  The Kingdom of Kush: the Napatan and Meroitic Empires. London: British Museum, 1996 and Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1998.

Pacific Peoples
Dening, Greg. Mr. Bligh’s Bad Language: Passion, Power, and Theatre on the Bounty.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Finney, Ben R.  Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey Through Polynesia.  University of California Press, 1995.

Flannery, Tim F.  The Future Eaters:  An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People.  New York: Grove Press, 2002.

Kirch, Patrick.  The Wet and Dry: Irrigation and Agricultural Intensification in Polynesia.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Oliver, Douglas L. Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989.

Mayans and Aztecs
Carrasco, David, ed.  The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures:  The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America.  3 volumes.  New York and London: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Coe, Michael D., and Koontz, Rex.  Mexico:  From the Olmecs to the Aztecs.  Fifth Edition.  New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.

Foster, Lynn V.  Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World.  New York: Facts on File, 2002.

Martin, Simon, and Grube, Nikolai.  Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya.  New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.

Sabloff, Jeremy A.  The New Archaeology and the Ancient Maya.  A Scientific American Book.  New York: W. H. Freeman, 1990.

Sharer, Robert J.  The Ancient Maya, Fifth Edition.  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.

Smith, Michael E.  The Aztecs.  Second Edition.  Malden, Mass. And Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003

Early Modern Europe
Cameron, Euan, Ed. Early Modern Europe.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Cipolla, Carlo M.  Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.

Hall, Bert S.  Weapons & Warfare in Renaissance Europe.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Parsons, William Barclay.  Engineers and Engineering in the Renaissance.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 1968.

Wolf, F. History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Century.  Second edition.  London: Allen and Unwin, 1950.

Wolf, F. History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the 18th Century, 2d ed.  London:  Allen and Unwin, 1952.

The Industrial Revolution in Europe
Ashton, T. S.  The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830.  Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1986.  First published in 1948.

Berg, Maxine.  The Machinery Question and the Making of Political Economy.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Briggs, Asa.  Iron Bridge to Crystal Palace: Impacet and Images of the Industrial Revolution.  London: 1979.

Collins, Mary.  The Industrial Revolution.  New York: Grolier, 2000.

Landes, David S.  The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.

Musson, A. E. and Robinson, Eric.  Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution.  Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969.

O’Brien, Patrick and Quinault, Roland, Eds.  The Industrial Revolution in British Society.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Rosenberg, Nathan and Birdzell, L. E. Jr.  How the West Grew Rich:  The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World.  New York: Basic Books, 1987.

Sale, Kirkpatrick.  Rebels Against the Future:  The Luddites and their War on the Industrial Revolution.  Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley, 1996.

Wrigley, E. A. Continuity, Chance, and Change: The Character of the Industrial Revolution in England.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Early Industrial America
Clark, Victor S.  History of Manufactures in the United States, 2 vols.  Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1929.

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz.  A Social History of American Technology.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Hindle, Brooke and Lubar, Steven.  Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution, 1790-1860.  Washington: Smithsonain Institution, 1986.

Hughes, Thomas P.  American Genesis: A History of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970.  New York: Viking, 1989.

Kasson, John.  Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America, 1776-1900.  New York: Penguin, 1977.

Marcus, Alan I. and Segal, Howard P.  Technology in America: A Brief History.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.

McCormick, Anita Louise. The Industrial Revolution in American History. Enslow, 1998.

Nye, David.  American Technological Sublime.  Cambrige: MIT Press, 1994.

Patton, Phil.  Make in USA: The Secret Histories of Things that Made America Great.  New York: Gove Wedenfeld, 1992.

Robertson, James Oliver.  America’s Business.  New York: Hill and Wang, 1985.

Sprigg, June and Larkin, David.  Shaker: Life, Work, and Art.  New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1987.

York, Neil Longley.  Mechanical Metamorphis: Technological Change in Revolutionary America.  Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1987.

Weitzman, David.  Traces of the Past: A Field Guide to Industrial Archaeology.  New York: Charles Scribner, 1980.

The United States: 1870 – 1970
Boorstin, Daniel J.  The Americans: The Democratic Experience.  New York: Random House, 1973.

Chandler, Alfred D.  The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business.  Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1977.

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz.  More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave.  New York: Basic Books, 1983.

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz.  A Social History of American Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Hine, Thomas.  Populuxe.  New York: A. A. Knopf, 1986.

Hounshell, David A.  From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.

Hughes, Thomas P.  American Genesis: A History of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970.  New York: Viking, 1989.

Nye, David.  American Technological Sublime.  Cambridge:  MIT Press, 1994.  Patton, Phil.  Made in USA: The Secret Histories of the Things that Made America Great.  New York: Grove Wedenfeld, 1992.

Pursell, Carroll.  The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
Fischer, Klaus P.  Nazi Germany,  New York: Continuum 1995.

Overy, Richard.  Why the Allies Won.  NY: W. W. Norton, 1996.

Graham, Loren R.  The Ghost of the Executed Engineer: Technology and the Fall of the Soviet Union.  Cambridge, Mass./London: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Graham, Loren R.  What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience?  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Neufeld, Michael J.  The Rocket and the Reich:  Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missle Era.  New York: Free Press, 1995.

John Scott.  Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia’s City of Steel.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.

The World Since 1970
Cerruzzi, Paul E.  A History of Modern Computing.  Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000.

Chandler, Alred D.  Inventing the Electronic Century:  The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Science Industries.  New York:  Free Press, 2001.

Coyle, Diane.  Paradoxes of Prosperity:  Why the New Capitalism Benefits All.  New York: Texere, 2001.

Friedman, Thomas L.  The Lexus and the Olive Three: Understanding Globalization.  New York: Anchor Books, 2000.

Hopkins, A. G., Ed.  Globalization in World History.  New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.

Lindsey, Brink.  Against the Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.

Lubar, Steven D.  Infoculture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

Schaeffer, Robert K.  Understanding Globalization:  The Social Consequences of Political, Economic, and Environmental Change.  Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

Steger, Manfred B.  Globalization: A Very Short Introduction.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.