The Shock of the Old

Technology and Global History since 1900

David Edgerton

ISBN 1861972962

ISBN 13 9781861972965

January 2007

Price £18.99

Hardback, 320 pp.

Buy this book at amazon.co.uk

View quote sheet

Subject: History

Other formats available: Paperback

Whereas standard histories of technology give tired old accounts of the usual inventions – planes, bombs – The Shock of the Old is based on a different idea. Its thrust is that for the full picture of the history of technology we need to know not about what a few people invented, but about what everyday people used – and when they actually used things, if it was a long time after invention. It therefore reassesses the significance of, for example, the Pill and IT, and shows the continued importance of technology such as corrugated iron and sewing machines.

In taking this approach, The Shock of the Old challenges the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change. Interweaving political, economic and cultural history, it will show what it means to think critically about technology and its importance.

‘It's rare for a book to make you see the world differently, but this alternative history does exactly that on almost every page.’
— Guardian

‘...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.’
— The Times