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systems, this history surveys preindustrial and early industrial agriculture and pastorism on all inhabited
continents. Other variables such as available technology are also considered. The work also relates early
agriculture to present agricultural systems and projects future agricultural evolution.
Epochs in the History of Technology, Heinrich Popitz. 1989. J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Seibeck), Tubingen. (in
German) 74 pages. ISBN: 3-16-245539-1. $NA.
The first of the two essays looks for the determining switch-points in the history of production concepts. The
leading query asks which fundamentally new concepts in the capability to produce have driven forward the
operation of anthropological tranformations of reality? And in which specific manner? The second essay shows
that the seeds for advancement of &dquo;productive intelligence&dquo; exists in the special adaptability of humankind
through technical enterprise, above all, in the functional variety and adaptability of the human hand.
Farther and Faster: Aviation’s Adventuring Year’s, Terry Gwynn-Jones. 1991. Smithsonian Institution
Press, Washington, DC. 320 pages. ISBN: 1-56098-000-1H. $29.95.

Soon after the Wright brothers launched the age of powered flight in 1903 - flying a distance of 120 feet in 12
seconds - pilots looked for ways to race their wondrous new machines. Lagging interest in the United States led
to Europe becoming the center of aviation technology and the scene of numerous high-stakes racing contests.
Over the next thirty years, as airplanes progressed from erratic wood and wire contraptions to streamlined
all-metal monoplanes, airplanes’ speed increased tenfold and their range increased at a heady rate. The author
chronicles this golden age of aviation from the perspective of the dual goals of speed and distance. He describes
this crucial period in the airplane’s development as a tool of war and later as an accepted vehicle for public
transportation.
Written with an international focus, Farther and Faster pays careful attention to technical and historical detail.
Recounting the quest for distance, Gwynn-Jones focuses on the struggle to conquer the world’s oceans - from the
pioneering flights of Bldriot, Alcock, Lindbergh, Costes, Kingsford-Smith, and many others, to the
establishment of the first intercontinental airlines. He shows how the simultaneous efforts to increase the speed
of flight, spurred by the Schneider, Pulitzer, and Bennett races, led to improved aircraft design and more powerful
engines.
Favorites of Fortune: Technology, Growth, and Economic Development Since the Industrial
Revolution, Henry Rosovsky, David S. Landes, and Patrice Higonnet, eds. 1991. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, MA. 560 pages. ISBN: 0-674-29520-X. $45.00.
For well over a century after Smith, his classical paradigm of &dquo;natural growth&dquo; reigned supreme. But some
nations grew rich, others poor. Instead of questioning the paradigm, theorists attributed unequal growth rates
among nations to political factors or to the unequal distribution of land. Man or nature must have foiled the
unfolding of the inevitable.
In this book a galaxy of distinguished international economists and historians pit economic history against the

shaky assumptions of the classical economic theory of natural growth. Their explanations consider the factors of
technology, entrepreneurialism, and paths to economic growth, but each reflects an ideological wave of
explanation that has marked the last 200 years. These remarkable studies approach a common concern with
considerable assurance and a variety of techniques, all interrelated, all leaving room for amendment and
contradiction. Economic history is presented here as an art and not as a science. Diversity of understanding,
interpretation, and persuasion are highly prized. No economic historian will be able to ignore these writings.
This book will definitely carve a niche in the field of economic history.

Galileo, Bellarmine and The Bible, Richard J. Blackwell. 1991. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre
Dame, IN. 272 pages. ISBN: 0-268-01024-2. $29.95.

Considered the paradigm case of the troubled interaction between science and religion, the conflict between
Galileo and the Church continues to generate new research and lively debate. Blackwell offers a fresh approach to

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the Galileo case using as his primary focus the biblical and ecclesiastical issues that were the battleground for the
celebrated confrontation.

His research in the Vatican manuscript collection and the Jesuit archives in Rome enables him to re-create a vivid
picture of the trends and counter-trends that influenced leading Catholic thinkers of the period: the conservative
reaction to the Reformation, the role of authority in biblical exegesis and in guarding orthodoxy from the inroads
of &dquo;unbridled spirits,&dquo; and the position taken by Cardinal Bellarmine and the Jesuits in attempting to weigh the
discoveries of the new science in the context of traditional philosophy and theology.

A centerpiece of Blackwell’s investigation is his careful reading of the brief treatise Letter on the Motion of the
Earth by Paolo Antonio Foscarini, a Carmelite scholar, arguing for the compatability of the Copernican system
with the Bible. Blackwell appends the first modern translation into English of this important and neglected
document, which was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1616.

Though there were differing and competing theories of biblical interpretation advocated in Galileo’s time, the
legacy of the Council of Trent, the views of Cardinal Bellarmine, the most influential churchman of his time,
and, finally, the claims of authority and obedience that weakened the ability of Jesuit scientists to support the
new science, all contributed to the eventual condemnation of Galileo in 1633. Blackwell argues that the
maintenance of ecclesiastical authority, not the scientific issues themselves, led to that tragic trial.

Goethe’s History of Science, Karl J. Fink. 1991. Cambridge, New York, NY. 288 pages. ISBN:
0-521-40211-5. $47.50.

Familiar with Goethe’s Faust story, students of Western thought will not be surprised to learn that he was also a
scientist, philosopher, and historian. This book is about the interdisciplinary activites of his mid-life
(1790-1810) when his research extended from physics to plant morphology at the same time engaging in the
growing literature in the history and philosophy of science.

In Goeth’s writings, Fink finds a scientist examining the junctures of nature, the boundary conditions where
growth and change occur, and in this history he examines the birth of a discipline. He tells how Goethe
distinguished science from the history of science; how, in dialogue with Friedrich Schiller, he applied Kantian
categories of the mind to his project on color theory; how Goethe confronted Newtonian science with the
strategies of polemics; how he organized science from Antiquity to the Enlightenment into epochs of authority
and canonicity; and how, as poet and critic, he linked the scientist’s language, style, and personality to the
development of schools of thought. Fink concludes his study with Goeth’s views on the possibility of teleology
of science, looking at those writings where he explores the way the scientitst of today projects and directs the
science of tomorrow.

The Greatest Good to the Greatest Number, David P. Adams. 1991. Peter Lang, New York, NY. 227
pages. $38.95.

In this work, the author examines the interaction of wartime bureaucracy, the academic medical establishment and
home front civilians. Drawing on a wide range of archival and oral sources, Adams presents a fascinating - often
poignant - account of the difficult biomedical decisions which accompanied the introduction of penicillin during
the Second World War. He traces the effect of &dquo;the wonder drug of 1943&dquo; on postwar American society. This
book represents a useful volume for scholars in the areas of twentieth-century history of medicine, social history,
and the history of biomedical policy.

A History of the University in Europe: Volume I - Universities in the Middle Ages, Hilde De
Ridder-Symoens. 1991. Cambridge, New York, NY. 500 pages. ISBN: 0-521-36105-2. $90.00.

This is the first of four volumes that will comprise A History of the University in Europe, covering the
development of the university in Europe (East and West) from its origins to the present day. No other up-to-date,
comprehensive history of this type exists: its originality lies in focusing on a number of major themes viewed
from a European perspective, and in its interdisciplinary, collaborative and transnational character.

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