Livre - Technics and civilization
1B TCH 179
Description
Livre
Harcourt, Brace and Co.
George Routledge & Sons
Mumford Lewis 1895 - 1990
Presentation materielle : 1 vol. (XI-495 p.)
Dimensions : In-16 (24 cm)
A history of the Machine and a critical study of its affects upon Civilization. Technics and Civilization by Lewis MUMFORD. Lewis Mumford has drawn upon every aspect of social life, art, science, philosophy, customs and manners, to explain the origin of the machine and to trace its social results. In the final chapter, Mr. Mumford draws the plan for a fresh social, political, and ideological adjustment to the modern world. “Technics and Civilizationˮ is both history and criticism. It is the first comprehensive attempt in English to give a picture of the development of the machine during the last thousand years. It examines the origins of the machine as they are to be found in human impulses and human dreams, in the social order that crystallized in the early middle ages, and in the scientific and philosophic world-views that grew up in the seventeenth century. Mr. Mumford utilizes the latest historical researches to demonstrate that our modern machine age began to take shape as early as the tenth century, and he treats the Machine Age, sot u an indivisible unit, but as divided into three phases, each of which is shown to have a different set of technical, economic, and social characteristics, as distinct as the various atone ages in the remote past. The book does not end on a note of frustration and despair any more than it indicates that the Machine Age h the height of human felicity. It shows how within the technical order itself there is a new approach to the organic: an inter-relation of these new means of existence and humanly valuable goals and desires. Without question the major contribution of a writer whose influence has already been great, “Technics and Civilizationˮ is one of the most significant books ever written by an American trek and historian. Lewis Mumford was Born in Flushing, Long Island in 1895. Brought up in New York City, he went through the public schools, was graduated from the Stuyvesant High School, and spent the next six years studying in the city’s museums, colleges, and universities, particularly in the Evening Session of the College of the City of New York. A contribution to The Forum magazine in 1914 marked the beginning of his professional literary career; since that time his writings have appeared in a wide variety of American and European magazines. During the first World War he was a Radio Electrician, 2nd class, U.S.N. After that he became associate editor of The Fortnightly Dial (1919), acting editor of The Sociological Review in London (1920), and co-editor of The American Caravan from 1927 to 1936. His first book, THE STORY OF UTOPIAS, appeared in 1922. During the past fifteen years Lewis Mumford has played a growing part in American higher education. From 1930 to 1935 he served as visiting professor at Dartmouth College, from 1935 to 1937 as a member of the Board of Higher Education in the City of New York, and from 1938 to 1944 as a member of the Commission on Teacher Education of the American Council on Education. When the School of Humanities at Stanford University was organized in 1942, Mr. Mumford was called upon to fill the post of Professor of Humanities and to give the three basic courses in that school on the nature of man and the function of the humanities. Before that he had been invited to participate in the Stanford Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration, to represent philosophy. For this is the field toward which his manifold interests and his persistent search for synthesis and order have inevitably lad.
OBJECTIVES, p. 3 CHAPTER I. CULTURAL PREPARATION, p. 9 1: Machines, Utilities, and “The Machineˮ, p. 9 2: The Monastery and the dock, p. 12 3: Space, Distance, Movement, p. 18 4: The Influence of Capitalism, p. 23 5: From Fable to Fact, p. 28 6: The Obstacle of Animism, p. 31 7: The Road Through Magic, p. 36 8: Social Regimentation, p. 41 9: The Mechanical Universe, p. 45 10: The Duty to Invent, p. 52 11: Practical Anticipations, p. 55 CHAPTER II. AGENTS OF MECHANIZATION, p. 60 1: The Profile of Technics, p. 60 2: De Re Metallica, p. 65 3: Mining and Modern Capitalism, p. 74 4: The Primitive Engineer, p. 77 5: From Game-Hunt to Man-Hunt, p. 81 6: Warfare and Invention, p. 85 7: Military Mass-Production, p. 89 8: Drill and Deterioration, p. 94 9: Mars and Venus, p. 96 10: Consumptive Pull and Productive Drive, p. 102 CHAPTER III. THE EOTECHNIC PHASE, p. 107 1: Technical Syncretism, p. 107 2: The Technological Complex, p. 109 3: New Sources of Power, p. 112 4: Trunk, Plank, and Spar, p. 119 5: Through a Glass, Brightly, p. 124 6: Glass and the Ego, p. 128 7: The Primary Inventions, p. 131 8: Weakness and Strength, p. 142 CHAPTER IV. THE PALEOTECHNIC PHASE, p. 151 1: England’s Belated Leadership, p. 151 2: The New Barbarism, p. 153 3: Carboniferous Capitalism, p. 156 4: The Steam Engine, p. 158 5: Blood and Iron, p. 163 6: The Destruction of Environment, p. 167 7: The Degradation of the Worker, p. 172 8: The Starvation of Life, p. 178 9: The Doctrine of Progress, p. 182 10: The Struggle for Existence, p. 185 11: Class and Nation, p. 187 12: The Empire of Muddle, p. 191 13: Power and Time, p. 196 14: The Esthetic Compensation, p. 199 15: Mechanical Triumphs, p. 205 16: The Paleotechnic Passage, p. 210 CHAPTER V. THE NEOTECHNIC PHASE, p. 212 1: The Beginnings of Neotechnics, p. 212 2: The Importance of Science, p. 215 3: New Sources of Energy, p. 221 4: The Displacement of the Proletariat, p. 224 5: Neotechnic Materials, p. 229 6: Power and Mobility, p. 235 7: The Paradox of Communication, p. 239 8: The New Permanent Record, p. 242 9: Light and Life, p. 245 10: The Influence of Biology, p. 250 11: From Destruction to Conservation, p. 255 12: The Planning of Population, p. 260 13: The Present Pseudomorph, p. 263 CHAPTER VI. COMPENSATIONS AND REVERSIONS, p. 268 1: Summary of Social Reactions, p. 268 2: The Mechanical Routine, p. 269 3: Purposeless Materialism: Superfluous Power, p. 273 4: Co-operation versus Slavery, p. 278 5: Direct Attack on the Machine, p. 284 6: Romantic and Utilitarian, p. 285 7: The Cult of the Past, p. 288 8: The Return to Nature, p. 295 9: Organic and Mechanical Polarities, p. 299 10: Sport and the “Bitch-goddessˮ, p. 303 11: The Cult of Death, p. 307 12: The Minor Shock-Absorbers, p. 311 13: Resistance and Adjustment, p. 316 CHAPTER VII. ASSIMILATION OF THE MACHINE, p. 321 1: New Cultural Values, p. 321 2: The Neutrality of Order, p. 326 3: The Esthetic Experience of the Machine, p. 333 4: Photography as Means and Symbol, p. 337 5: The Growth of Functionalism, p. 344 6: The Simplification of the Environment, p. 357 7: The Objective Personality, p. 359 CHAPTER VIII. ORIENTATION, p. 364 1: The Dissolution of “The Machineˮ, p. 364 2: Toward an Organic Ideology, p. 368 3: The Elements of Social Energetics, p. 373 4: Increase Conversion!, p. 380 5: Economize Production!, p. 383 6: Normalize Consumption!, p. 390 7: Basic Communism, p. 400 8: Socialize Creation!, p. 406 9: Work for Automaton and Amateur, p. 410 10: Political Control, p. 417 11: The Diminution of the Machine, p. 423 12: Toward a Dynamic Equilibrium, p. 429 13: Summary and Prospect, p. 433 PREFATORY NOTE, V INVENTIONS, p. 437 BIBLIOGRAPHY, p. 447 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, p. 475 INDEX, p. 477 ILLUSTRATIONS I. ANTICIPATIONS OF SPEED, p. 52 II. PERSPECTIVES, p. 53 III. THE DANCE OF DEATH, p. 84 IV. MINING, MUNITIONS, AND WAR, p. 85 V. TECHNICS OF WOOD, p. 148 VI. EOTECHNIC ENVIRONMENT, p. 149 VII. EARLY MANUFACTURE, p. 180 VIII, PALEOTECHNIC PRODUCTS, p. 181 IX. PALEOTECHNIC TRIUMPHS, p. 244 X. NEOTECHNIC AUTOMATISM, p. 276 XI. AIRPLANE SHAPES, p. 277 XII. NATURE AND THE MACHINE, p. 340 XIII. ESTHETIC ASSIMILATION, p. 341 XIV. MODERN MACHINE ART, p. 372 XV. THE NEW ENVIRONMENT, p. 373
Bibliogr. p. [447]-474. Index
