Margaret C. Jacob

As more historians acknowledge the central significance of science and technology in the making of the first Industrial Revolution, the need for a good, general history of the achievements of the Scientific Revolution has grown. Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West explains this historical process by looking at how and why scientific knowledge became such an integral part of the culture of Europe. Seeking to understand the cultural origins of the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, this text first looks at the scientific culture of the seventeenth century, focusing not only on England but following through with a study of the history of science and technology in France, the Netherlands, and Germany. Comparative in structure, this text explains why England was so much more successful at this transition than its continental counterparts. It also integrates science with worldly concerns, focusing mainly on the entrepreneurs and engineers who possessed scientific insight and who were eager to profit from its advantages, demonstrating that during the mid-seventeenth century, British science was presented within an ideological framework that encouraged material prosperity. Readable summaries of the major scientific achievements are included to better communicate the central innovations of the period, and recent scholarship is added to help enhance the discussion of the integration of science into Western culture. Blending the history of science and technology with cultural history, this text is ideal for early modern European history courses, as well as for courses in cultural studies and the history of science.

This historical study of Enlightenment Freemasonry traces the origins and development of the order, from the roots of its political philosophy in 17th-century England to the French Revolution.

Discusses the scientific revolution in Europe that led to what we now know as modern science.

For review see: A.H. Huussen, in Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, jrg. 107, nr. 1 (1994); p. 95-96.

"Labeled as greedy and self-interested, capitalists have often suffered in historians' eyes. This book looks at merchants, entrepreneurs, and other individuals from around 1500 to 1800 - with some attention to their medieval roots - and asks how they actually saw themselves. Coming from deeply religious cultures, how did they relate their worldly activities to their beliefs and values? Did they see a conflict, as Weber might have imagined, or did they live at relative ease with the tensions between obedience to faith and the necessities of competition and striving? Drawing on personal letters and diaries, as well as handbooks, portraiture, and other pieces of material culture in general, the contributors to this volume each help to reconstruct an understanding of the people who put in place what became the dominant economic system in the Western world."--BOOK JACKET.