Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century, Revised and Expanded
Technical Innovations and Their Lasting Impact
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 21 May 2025
- ISBN 9780197784648
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages744 pages
- Size 234x167x47 mm
- Weight 1225 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 235 664
Categories
Short description:
Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century combines two of Vaclav Smil's seminal works--Creating the Twentieth Century and Transforming the Twentieth Century--in this revised and expanded edition. Covering technical advances that shaped the period from 1867 through the end of the 20th century, this new edition contains numerous updates and features a new preface and a final chapter examining key themes in light of major 21st-century events and publications. Now in a single volume, these classic texts remain central to Smil's acclaimed oeuvre, and their lessons are perennially fascinating.
MoreLong description:
Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century combines two of Vaclav Smil's seminal works in a revised and expanded edition. Creating the Twentieth Century explores the period between 1867 and 1914, a time of unparalleled innovation that laid the groundwork for modern civilization. It investigates the birth of an expansive society driven by the synergy of fuels, science, and technical innovation. Key inventions from this era include dynamite, the telephone, photographic film, and the first light bulbs in the 1870s, followed by electricity-generating plants, electric motors, steam turbines, and cars in the 1880s. The period of extraordinary discovery continues into the early 20th century with the advent of airplanes, tractors, radio signals, and plastics. Smil systematically examines four fundamental classes of innovations: the formation and standardization of electric systems, the rapid adoption of internal combustion engines, the surge in chemical syntheses and material substitutions, and the dawn of the information age. This interdisciplinary account highlights the epochal consequences of these advancements, leading to high-energy societies engaged in mass production aimed at improving living standards.
Transforming the Twentieth Century investigates how these technical advances shaped the decades that followed. It examines how the 20th century differed from the preceding 100 years due to unprecedented combinations of technical progress. Smil discusses the remarkable pace and ambition of 20th-century advancements, which elevated industrial production to new heights and tackled previously insurmountable challenges. He addresses the themes of electricity, engines, materials, and information techniques, and critically examines the contradictory consequences of technological progress--including liberating simplicity versus overwhelming complexity, unprecedented affluence versus economic disparities, and increased security versus new fears.
This new edition contains numerous updates to the original books and features a new preface and a final chapter examining key themes in light of major 21st-century events and publications. Now in a single volume, these classic texts remain central to Smil's acclaimed oeuvre, and their lessons are perennially fascinating.
Table of Contents:
Part I
CREATING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact
Chapter 1. The Great Inheritance
Chapter 2. The Age of Electricity
Chapter 3. Internal Combustion Engines
Chapter 4. New Materials and New Syntheses
Chapter 5. Communication and Information
Chapter 6. A New Civilization
Chapter 7. Contemporary Perceptions
Part II
TRANSFORMING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Technical Innovations and Their Consequences
Chapter 1 Transforming the 20th Century: Debts and Advances
Chapter 2. Energy Conversions: Growth and Innovation
Chapter 3. Materials: Old Techniques and New Solutions
Chapter 4. Rationalized Production: Mechanization, Automation, Robotization
Chapter 5. Transportation, Communication, Information: Mass and Speed
Chapter 6. New Realities and Counterintuitive Worlds: Accomplishments and Concerns
Chapter 7. A New Era or an Ephemeral Phenomenon? Outlook for Technical Civilization
