The Power of Knowledge: How Information and Technology Made the Modern World Author: Jeremy Black | Language: English | ISBN:
B00GGSFZX2 | Format: EPUB
The Power of Knowledge: How Information and Technology Made the Modern World Description
Information is power. For more than five hundred years the success or failure of nations has been determined by a country’s ability to acquire knowledge and technical skill and transform them into strength and prosperity. Leading historian Jeremy Black approaches global history from a distinctive perspective, focusing on the relationship between information and society and demonstrating how the understanding and use of information have been the primary factors in the development and character of the modern age.
Black suggests that the West’s ascension was a direct result of its institutions and social practices for acquiring, employing, and retaining information and the technology that was ultimately produced. His cogent and well-reasoned analysis looks at cartography and the hardware of communication, armaments and sea power, mercantilism and imperialism, science and astronomy, as well as bureaucracy and the management of information, linking the history of technology with the history of global power while providing important indicators for the future of our world.
- File Size: 1096 KB
- Print Length: 504 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press (November 1, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00GGSFZX2
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,651 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #21
in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Books & Reading > History of Books - #82
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Media Studies - #85
in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Reference > History
- #21
in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Books & Reading > History of Books - #82
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Media Studies - #85
in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Reference > History
This is a big read and an important book. The author considers Information in the context of history, power, technology and modernity and consider the interrelationships and significances of Information as the crown jewel of human accomplishment.
Black delivers a fascinating, well-written account of political, economic and technical Information as power using a 21st century Big Data lens to focus the evolution of man's desire for knowledge. Woods begins with written language through history's iterations of the present. Black speculates regarding the future trajectory.
The book pulls you in. It gets you involved in topics. From the matter of why men gather data, the author deep dives numbers, letters & narrative, and libraries from the origins. Black then places this knowledge gaining experience in a taxonomy that runs the reach of the history of accounting, cartography, printing, ships, census, medicine, astronomy, et. al. Black pulls the evolution of knowledge into an important human premise. It takes time to digest the fire hosing of history aligned to the current context. The Power of Knowledge is a stroll (or romp) through a hundred or so off little known mini-histories (at least to me) that are well subscribed to a 21st century world of big data/information.
Black is a Brit academic historian writing in an intricate, precise way. Look at the Amazon "view inside" to see if it is your cup of tea.
The author ventures into controversial areas. He anchors his premise in precise argument. The reader will recognize the hot buttons. Black does a dazzling job elucidating controversy.
Here is brain fertilizer for the deep diver. There are any number of very interesting off-ramps to further explore this well researched work.
5-star great read!
By robert johnston
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