Michael Adas: Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance (1990)

Thorough and systematic study of the role of ideas of technological and scientific superiority in the European outlook on non-European peoples. Covering the historical gamut from the time of Columbus to post-WWII developments and including a stunning array of sources, studies and quotations to buttress its thesis, it is bound to impress even specialists in the field, let alone general readers.

Adas shows us a look at the industrialization of Europe and the colonization of the non-Western world in a viewpoint that is supported and hard to dispute, even if it does not sit easily with the pride associated with being a “Westerner,” as are the majority of his readers. Adas has no problem with this, however, and dives in wholeheartedly. It is hard to dispute him on anything, since he supports all sides and arguments with equal voices in quantity as well as in quality.

The book won the 1991 prize of the Society for the History of Technology.

Publisher Cornell University Press, 1990
Cornell studies in comparative history
ISBN 0801497604, 9780801497605
430 pages

publisher
google books

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