Glass : a world history / Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin.

Author
Macfarlane, Alan [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Description
xi, 255 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Engineering Library - Stacks TP849 .M33 2002 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Summary note
    "Picture, if you can, a world without glass. There would be no microscopes or telescopes, no sciences of microbiology or astronomy. People with poor vision would grope in the shadows, and planes, cars, and even electricity probably wouldn't exist. Artists would draw without the benefit of three-dimensional perspective, and ships would still be steered by what stars navigators could see through the naked eye." "In Glass: A World History, Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin tell the story of how glass has revolutionized the way we see ourselves and the world around us. Macfarlane and Martin trace the history of glass and its uses from its invention ten thousand years ago in the Near East through the ancient civilizations of India, China, and Rome to western Europe during the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution, and finally up to the present day. The authors argue that glass played a key role not just in transforming humanity's relationship with the natural world, but also in the divergent courses of Eastern and Western civilizations. While all the societies that used glass first focused on its beauty in jewelry and other ornaments, and some later made it into bottles and other containers, only western Europeans further developed the use of glass for precise optics, mirrors, and windows. These technological innovations in glass, in turn, provided the foundations for European domination of the world in the several centuries following the Scientific Revolution." "Clear, compelling, and quite provocative, Glass is biography of an equally amazing subject, one that has been central to every aspect of human history, from art and science to technology and medicine."--Jacket.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-233) and index.
    Contents
    • 1 Invisible glass
    • 2 Glass in the West-from Mesopotamia to Venice
    • 3 Glass and the origin of early science
    • 4 Glass and the Renaissance
    • 5 Glass and later science
    • 6 Glass in the East
    • The clash of civilisations
    • 8 Spectacles and predicaments
    • 9 Visions of the world
    • App. 1 Types of glass
    • App. 2 The role of glass in twenty experiments that changed the world
    • Further reading
    • Sources for quoted passages
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
    ISBN
    • 0226500284 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    • 9780226500287 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    LCCN
    2002020493
    OCLC
    49860084
    International Article Number
    • 9780226500287
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