This book offers a unique approach to studying the history of technology that focuses not only on how technology has shaped and continues to impact the world but also on deepening philosophical understanding of what technology is. Using carefully chosen and instructive cases, Jones traces the origins of technology through its development by humans, demonstrating how key steps in crafting and using tools and the advent of agriculture, written counting systems, and language shaped the course of human history. Jones also explores important relationships between technology and other central spheres of the modern human world: science, economics, society and politics, and the environment. Examples range from before recorded history to the digital age, and numerous illustrations and photographs throughout the text bring these cases to life for readers.
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“Technology: Its Nature and Significance is indeed a book for everyone, thanks not only to its clarity and readability but also to its timely subject matter. Blending careful definition with well-chosen illustrations from the co-evolution of nature and the machine world, it slows down the typical rush to judgment about all things technological. If history is philosophy with examples, then this is a quiet tour de force of both philosophical reasoning and historical narrative. William B. Jones speaks to major themes, issues, and questions addressing the complexity of technology, as well as the differences that distinguish it from science, providing a powerful demonstration that philosophy and language matter.” — Michael Budd, Professor of History, Salve Regina University
“With its impressive breadth of historical case studies and philosophical reflections, Technology: Its Nature and Significance provides a compelling case that the history of technology is, at its heart, a history of humanity itself. Jones masterfully weaves a complex yet digestible narrative spanning from the origins of stone tools and sedentary life through the steam engine, the destruction of the American bison herds, the digitization of music, and beyond—all the while reminding us that technology is intimately connected to human society, politics, and the environment. By bringing these stories and lessons to life, Jones provides an indispensable book for readers interested not only in the history of technology but also in humanity’s intricate, evolving, and technologically driven relationship with our world.” — Joshua Tonkel, Department of History, University of Alabama-Huntsville
