The Invention of Improvement

The Invention of Improvement PDF Author: Paul Slack
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199645914
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
The idea of improvement - gradual and cumulative betterment - was something new in 17th century England. It became commonplace to assert that improvements in agriculture, industry, commerce, and social welfare would bring infinite prosperity and happiness. The word improvement was itself new, and since it had no equivalent in other languages, it gave the English a distinctive culture of improvement which they took with them to Ireland, Scotland, and America. Slack explains the political, intellectual, and economic circumstances which allowed notions of improvement to take root.

The Invention of Improvement

The Invention of Improvement PDF Author: Paul Slack
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199645914
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
The idea of improvement - gradual and cumulative betterment - was something new in 17th century England. It became commonplace to assert that improvements in agriculture, industry, commerce, and social welfare would bring infinite prosperity and happiness. The word improvement was itself new, and since it had no equivalent in other languages, it gave the English a distinctive culture of improvement which they took with them to Ireland, Scotland, and America. Slack explains the political, intellectual, and economic circumstances which allowed notions of improvement to take root.

The Invention of Improvement: Information and Material Progress in Seventeenth-century England

The Invention of Improvement: Information and Material Progress in Seventeenth-century England PDF Author: Paul Slack
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191757754
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The idea of improvement - gradual and cumulative betterment - was something new in 17th century England. It became commonplace to assert that improvements in agriculture, industry, commerce, and social welfare would bring infinite prosperity and happiness. The word improvement was itself new, and since it had no equivalent in other languages, it gave the English a distinctive culture of improvement which they took with them to Ireland, Scotland, and America. Slack explains the political, intellectual, and economic circumstances which allowed notions of improvement to take root.

A Culture of Improvement

A Culture of Improvement PDF Author: Robert Friedel
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026251401X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
How technological change in the West has been driven by the pursuit of improvement: a history of technology, from plows and printing presses to penicillin, the atomic bomb, and the computer. Why does technology change over time, how does it change, and what difference does it make? In this sweeping, ambitious look at a thousand years of Western experience, Robert Friedel argues that technological change comes largely through the pursuit of improvement—the deep-rooted belief that things could be done in a better way. What Friedel calls the "culture of improvement" is manifested every day in the ways people carry out their tasks in life—from tilling fields and raising children to waging war. Improvements can be ephemeral or lasting, and one person's improvement may not always be viewed as such by others. Friedel stresses the social processes by which we define what improvements are and decide which improvements will last and which will not. These processes, he emphasizes, have created both winners and losers in history. Friedel presents a series of narratives of Western technology that begin in the eleventh century and stretch into the twenty-first. Familiar figures from the history of invention are joined by others—the Italian preacher who described the first eyeglasses, the dairywomen displaced from their control over cheesemaking, and the little-known engineer who first suggested a grand tower to Gustav Eiffel. Friedel traces technology from the plow and the printing press to the internal combustion engine, the transistor, and the space shuttle. Friedel also reminds us that faith in improvement can sometimes have horrific consequences, as improved weaponry makes warfare ever more deadly and the drive for improving human beings can lead to eugenics and even genocide. The most comprehensive attempt to tell the story of Western technology in many years, engagingly written and lavishly illustrated, A Culture of Improvement documents the ways in which the drive for improvement has shaped our modern world.

The London Gazette

The London Gazette PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 716

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The Commissioners of Patents' Journal

The Commissioners of Patents' Journal PDF Author: Great Britain. Commissioners of Patents
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Patents
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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The Improvement of the Mind

The Improvement of the Mind PDF Author: Isaac Watts
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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The London Gazette

The London Gazette PDF Author: Great Britain
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gazettes
Languages : en
Pages : 1402

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The Commissioners of Patents' Journal

The Commissioners of Patents' Journal PDF Author: Great Britain. Patent Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1362

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Patent Laws of the World

Patent Laws of the World PDF Author: Alfred Carpmael
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Patent laws and legislation
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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The Book of Specimens, Stanhope Press

The Book of Specimens, Stanhope Press PDF Author: Stanhope Press
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cloth bindings (Bookbinding)
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description