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History of Technology Volume 31

Hardback

Main Details

Title History of Technology Volume 31
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Professor Ian Inkster
SeriesHistory of Technology
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:176
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 156
Category/GenreWorld history
ISBN/Barcode 9781441152794
ClassificationsDewey:609
Audience
Professional & Vocational

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA
Publication Date 22 November 2012
Publication Country United States

Description

New work on early modern Europe has now opened up the hidden avenues that link changes of technologies with a complex of cognitive, institutional, spatial and cultural elements. It is true that all divisions of history wish to incorporate all other divisions unto themselves, but in the essays of our first collection there are specific cases and analyses clearly delineated to show how technologies and systems for the production, reproduction and representation of technological changes emerged out of fundamental aspects of European society and mentality. The question must be: How far were such fundamental aspects unique (in their entirety and configuration) to Europe? The second collection on patent agency takes the modern industrialization of Europe as its focus, and illustrates the manner in which systems of intellectual property rights generated manifold agencies that acted to both spread and control the use of knowledge in advanced sites. Patent agency has been generally neglected by historians, one reason for this being the difficulty of defining effective agency beyond the obvious confines of those who were actually trained and remunerated as agents of invention. Informal networks or sites may have been crucial in converting general patent systems into local environs of technical advance.

Author Biography

Ian Inkster is Research Professor of International History at Nottingham Trent University, UK.