Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages Audiobook by Frances Gies

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ID: 621445
Title: Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages
Author: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies
Narrator: Anne Flosnik
Format: Unabridged
Length: 09:24:59
Language: English
Release date: 05-31-22
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Genres: History, World, Europe

Summary:
In this account of Europes rise to world leadership in technology, Frances and Joseph Gies make use of recent scholarship to destroy two time-honored myths.
Myth One: that Europes leap forward occurred suddenly in the Renaissance, following centuries of medieval stagnation. Not so, say the Gieses: Early modern technology and experimental science were direct outgrowths of the decisive innovations of medieval Europe, in the tools and techniques of agriculture, craft industry, metallurgy, building construction, navigation, and war.
Myth Two: that Europe achieved its primacy through Western superiority. On the contrary, the authors report, many of Europes most important inventionsthe horse harness, the stirrup, the magnetic compass, cotton and silk cultivation and manufacture, papermaking, firearms, Arabic numeralshad their origins outside Europe, in China, India, and Islam. The Gieses show how Europe synthesized its own innovationsthe three-field system, water power in industry, the full-rigged ship, the putting-out systeminto a powerful new combination of technology, economics, and politics.
From the expansion of medieval mans capabilities, the voyage of Columbus with all its fateful consequences is seen as an inevitable product, while even the genius of Leonardo da Vinci emerges from the context of earlier and lesser-known dreamers and tinkerers.

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