Technology in World History (review)

In the magazine business, we use the term "encyclopedia entry" as shorthand for any fact-dense piece of writing that lacks narrative shape and human interest. The entries in Technology in World History, an illustrated survey from prehistory to the present, belie this characterization. They are written with a view to readability and overall accuracy rather than comprehensiveness and minute precision, and they manage to be serious and thorough without lapsing into an isn't-this-wonderful tone. The set's editor, W. Bernard Carlson, wrote about a third of the chapters himself and has done a fine job of maintaining standards in the others, by authors well known to readers of Technology and Culture such as Francesca Bray, Jonathan Coopersmith, Thomas Glick, Pamela Long, and Bryan Pfaffenberger.

Technology in World History seems aimed primarily at the scholastic market, but, as is true of all good entrants in that category, you can't tell right away. Every now and then an author reveals the intended audience by explaining some simple term—what customs duties are, or what perspective means in architecture—but most of the text will be enlightening to curious readers of any age. The writing is straightforward and, thankfully, the writers resist the temptation to draw facile parallels with present-day consumer technologies or popular culture.

The encyclopedia consists of six volumes, each 96 pages long and divided into three chapters, plus a 64-page seventh volume that contains a glossary, a cumulative index, and references (print and online) for further research. The chapters are interspersed with sidebars that discuss specific topics, such as underwater archaeology, the Mayan calendar, and cartographic projections. Almost every spread contains two or more pictures, maps, or diagrams, and the standard among these is quite high: art, tools, manuscripts, and other artifacts are well chosen and well photographed.

The first two volumes are Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds and Early Empires. To many readers, those topics will sound as appealing as a plate of broccoli, but the authors make them not just understandable but interesting as pleasure reading, revealing how early civilizations managed the necessities of life, created tools and ceremonial objects, and built public works and monuments. Here the focus on younger readers works well for everyone, as it discourages the authors from turning the text into a catalog of barely pronounceable names and terms.

Volumes 3 and 4, The Medieval World and Traditional Cultures, exemplify the global scope of the set, with chapters on Europe, the Islamic empire, late imperial China, sub-Saharan Africa, Pacific peoples, and the Mayas and Aztecs. (For a volume that is being marketed in the United States, North American Indians and Inuits get oddly little coverage.) Here we learn that ancient sub-Saharan farmers did not use plows, and no one knows why; that "between 1200 and 1400 CE the Halawa Valley on Molokai in the western Hawaiian islands probably supported about 650 people per square mile" (vol. 4, p. 45); and, less surprisingly, that "Chinese rulers appreciated Jesuit expertise in European mathematics, astronomy, mapmaking, and other technical fields more than their theology" (vol. 3, p. 90).

Volumes 5 and 6, The Industrial Age and The Modern World, while still impressive, reveal the limitations of the set's simple and direct style when applied to contemporary and familiar events. As the pace of innovation accelerates after the Industrial Revolution, the narrative becomes increasingly sketchy; what sounds magisterial for ancient civilizations can read like generic textbook prose when applied to more recent times. And when it comes to current history, the attempt to provide instant context sometimes yields lackluster results ("[Osama] Bin Laden is a chilling reminder that, in the wrong hands, technological knowledge can be used to do great harm" [vol. 6, p. 87]).

To be fair, it is impossible to say everything about technology, covering all of history and every part of the world, in 576 extensively illustrated pages. The set does not devote much space to medicine, for example, or to...