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Shock Of The Old : Technology and Global History since 1900 [Kindle Edition]

David Edgerton (Author)

3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews) |

Digital List Price:	�8.95 What's this?
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Length: 288 pages
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Product Description

Review

"'So the new is old, and the old is new! Marvellous stuff, and absolutely spot-on.' Simon Jenkins, Guardian 'A quiet pleasure and salutary corrective...Edgerton leaves us with an infinitely more nuanced, balanced and perceptive account of technology and social change than conventional accounts would allow.' Independent '...he eviscerates our obsession with novelty.' Sunday Times"

The Times

`...iconoclastic and thought-provoking book...he makes a strong case that accords with what Virgil identified around 25BC as a definitive human characteristic. Our lives consist of semper cedentia retro: always going forwards backwards.'

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Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1421 KB
Print Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Profile Books (26 May 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.� r.l.
Language English
ASIN: B0050U8BOC
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #90,746 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #16 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Technology & Engineering > History

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

history as if the facts mattered as much as the story 22 Dec 2010

By Dean Swift

Format:Paperback

This is a terrific antidote to the idea that history is simply a good yarn, spun out for the sake of consistency, and an even better challenge to conventional notions of historical progress. What Edgerton does briliantly is make you re-examine your assumptions about how the world changes. He does not simply look for confirmation of conventional historical archetypes - like the triumph of technology - but seeks to understand the influence of innovation on the big scale, globally, both where it does and does not make a difference, where it goes backwards as well as forwards, or simply stands still. Told with real verve and packed with gems of detail and surprising fact.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Get Real 18 Feb 2010

By Mr. N. Foale

Format:Paperback

This book makes important points about our love affair with technology and in doing so makes the conventional wisdom look clapped out. Our innovation fetish makes us unhealthily dependent upon novelty - instead we should carefully consider how to productively wield technology, both old and new. As such I disagree with other reviewers - the thesis is clear: focus on results rather than look for answers in the technology itself. Technical fixes cannot solve human problems.

The book points out the importance of maintenance and smart reuse of existing technology. Poorer people well know this - for example I saw African roads chock full of decrepit vehicles that are daily tended by skilled street mechanics to prolong their working lives. This emphasis on maintenance and reuse dampens the hype surrounding my professional role of developing I.T. systems. For example in Web development the latest fashion is to move beyond the single browser window by web-enabling traditional multi-window applications. This begs the question: if we really needed to stick with the more complex user interface of traditional applications then why did we reject them in in the first place? It is essential that we clarify our aims if we are to disperse the innovation smokescreen.

Technology persists longer than the prevailing wisdom would have us believe. The author cites many examples including that conventional weapons, even in the most recent wars, kill more people than do modern weapons such as nuclear or 'smart' bombs. Take the readily available Kalashnikov: an (admittedly grim) emblem of the book's theme. It is simple to manufacture and maintain, and its rugged robustness wins out over shinier guns that are superior in showroom conditions. In other words it is both readily available and can be relied upon to get the job done.

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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Great content, difficult style 7 Aug 2010

By Wantrapreneur

Format:Paperback

There is some great content and important ideas in this book. Technology does not march forward in the way most of us expect. Innovation is not necessarily a solution for a nation trying to keep ahead etc. However, I found the book hard work to read. The style jumped from example to example and left me to understand the flow and the core message. It felt like a book written for people that have to read it, rather than a book written for people that want to read.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Very list-y!

It's an ok book. I got it as my course was heavily based on it, which was useful for me, but it does feel like a large list of examples of historical misconceptions. Read more

Published 16 months ago by T. Jennings

good title good cover terrible book

the ideas in this book could be written on page 1 - the rest is padding. good marketing! if you want to waste 6.99 buy - otherwise don't bother.

Published on 31 Aug 2009 by Mrs. S. C. Lamb

Something missing...

This book has been sitting on my desk for some weeks. I finished it a while ago, but wasn't sure how to review it, because I'm not sure exactly what the author's thesis is. Read more

Published on 29 Dec 2008 by Alan Lenton

Hidden in here is a much better book, I'm sure

...but though there were lots of interesting facts and insights, I'm not really sure there was a clear argument to follow. Read more

Published on 3 Jun 2007 by Jezza

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