Technological developments during the Industrial Revolution

December 1, 2014 8:52 AM

Book recommendations, please! What's a good non-fiction book to sink one's teeth into about the technological developments leading to the Industrial Revolution?
posted by invokeuse to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Thomas Misa's Leonardo to the Internet (2nd ed.) is a recent, accessible overview of the history of technology over the last five centuries, with extensive references to more specialized literature. I'd start there.
posted by brianogilvie at 9:21 AM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. It's about scientific discoveries during the 18th and 19th century, but it doesn't make explicit ties (or at least not many of them) to the Industrial Revolution, I don't think.
posted by Leontine at 12:00 PM on December 1, 2014

Not a book, but: The original 1978 Connections documentaries by James Burke are excellent. Many of the episodes trace how a series of medieval technologies led up to the edge of a specific modern industrial technology. (E.g.: If I'm remembering correctly, beer brewing was essential for the development of the steam engine, because beer brewers had developed high-pressure vessels.)

There's a companion book, but I've never read it and can't say how good it is.
posted by clawsoon at 12:17 PM on December 1, 2014