David Edgerton

Offers a global account of the place of technology in twentieth century history.

Technology and Global History Since 1900

The Shock of the Old

A Twentieth Century History

Rise and Fall of the British Nation

From the books of H.G. Wells to the press releases of NASA, we are awash in clich?d claims about high technology's ability to change the course of history. 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. 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. 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. 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 "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.

Technology and Global History since 1900

It is usual to see the United Kingdom as an island of continuity in an otherwise convulsed and unstable Europe; its political history a smooth sequence of administrations, a story of building a welfare state and coping with decline. But what if Britain's history was approached from a different angle? What if we wrote about it as we might write the history of Germany, say, or the Soviet Union, as a story of power, and of transformation? David Edgerton's major new book breaks out of the confines of traditional British national history to reveal an unfamiliar place, subject to radical discontinuities. Out of a liberal, capitalist, genuinely global power of a unique kind, there arose from the 1940s a distinct British nation. This was committed to internal change, making it much more like the great continental powers. From the 1970s it became bound up both with the European Union and with foreign capital in new ways. Such a perspective produces new and refreshed understanding of everything from the nature of British politics to the performance of British industry. Packed with surprising examples and arguments, The Rise and Fall of the British Nation gives us a grown-up, unsentimental history, one which is crucial at a moment of serious reconsideration for the country and its future.

A Twentieth-Century History

The Rise and Fall of the British Nation

The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might alone. David Edgerton's compelling new book destroys this myth, revealing Britain as a wealthy colossus, sitting at the heart of a vast global production system, building arms in huge factories over the world, and inventing ever-more ingenious weapons. It was, he shows, a country ready to wage a war of machines - and to win it. 'Brilliant and thought-provoking . . . remarkable.' Brendan Simms, Sunday Telegraph 'Opinionated, iconoclastic . . . this book has changed my views.' Richard Holmes, Literary Review 'Lively, stimulating and authoritative.' Ben Shephard, Observer 'Absolutely fascinating. This book will make you think differently about Britain's role in the Second World War.' Laurence Rees, author of Auschwitz: The Nazis and The 'Final Solution 'A stunning book, told with authority, clarity and compelling energy.' James Holland, author of The Battle of Britain 'The period will never look the same again.' Adam Tooze, author of The Wages of Destruction

Weapons, Resources and Experts in the Second World War

Britain's War Machine

George Dyson

Alfred Jarry

Enda Duffy

Pauline Oliveros

Siegfried Zielinski

Mark Fell

Timothy Druckrey

Arie Altena

Thomas W. Patteson

Joel Ryan

Catherine Christer Hennix

Robin Hayward

Hilary Jeffery

Keith Fullerton Whitman

Gilles Aubry

Hilel Schwartz

Omar Muñoz-Cremers

Critical essays and interviews in this volume reveal the significance and intricacies of time and particularly how we experience it. Time is a complex and ambiguous concept. Relativity theorists and quantum mechanics have tinkered with the seemingly unambiguous concept of time since the beginning of the previous century. Art, film, and music make abstract notions of time tangible and comprehensible, and manipulate how we experience it. The ongoing development and implementation of technology constantly challenge, change and undermine our perception of time. This book is, in a sense, a homage to the human experience of time. One half of this anthology consists of articles and essays dealing with conceptions and imaginings of time in the fields of technology, culture and literature. The other half, collects interviews, with composers and performing musicians, concerning their intimate knowledge of working with time.

Travelling Time 

'It's rare for a book to make you see the world differently, but this ... does exactly that on almost every page' Guardian Standard histories of technology give tired accounts of the usual inventions, inventors, and dates, framing technology as the inevitable march of progress. They split history into ages - electrification, motorisation, and computerisation - and rarely ask whether anyone bothered to use these inventions at the time. Shock of the Old is not one of those histories. I Letters exist alongside emails and outlasted telegrams; we still make physical books and magazines despite the rise of the Internet - a belated rise considering that the technologies that made it possible was invented in 1965, and bookshops thrive despite Amazon. More horses were used in the Second World War than any other war in history and propeller planes continue to take off from the same runways as jets. Shock of the Old forces us to reassess the significance of old inventions such as corrugated iron and sewing machines and rethink the relative importance we place on the invention of something new, its application, and its widespread adoption. It challenges the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change and, interweaving political, economic and cultural history, teaches us to think critically about technology.

Shock Of The Old

David Edgerton

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