Authors James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn argue that technology as "applied science" emerged relatively recently, as industry and governments began funding scientific research that would lead directly to new or improved technologies. They identify two great scientific traditions: the useful sciences, patronized by the state from the dawn of civilization and scientific theorizing, initiated by the ancient Greeks. They find that scientific traditions took root in China, India and Central and South America, as well as in a series of Near Eastern empires, during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. From this comparative perspective, the authors explore the emergence of Europe and the United States as a scientific and technological power.

The new edition reorganizes its treatment of Greek science and significantly expands its coverage of industrial civilization and contemporary science and technology with new and revised chapters devoted to applied science, the sociology and economics of science, globalization and the technological systems that underpin everyday life.

About the Authors
James E. McClellan III is professor of the history of science and Harold Dorn is professor emeritus of the history of science and technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

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