First edition, later printing of Lewis Mumford’s magnum opus, a magisterial study of the development of machine technics, proposing technology as a cultural phenomenon, pushing the genesis of the modern industrial world back to the Middle Ages with the invention of the clock and the time-discipline and work ethic of the monastery, and arguing for human efficacy against a current of technological determinism. Signed on the title page by Mumford beneath his name, and on the front free endpaper by a previous owner, the cultural anthropologist and pioneering ethnographer of the sub-Arctic, Catherine McClellan. First published by Harcourt, Brace and Company in 1934; this printing dated to May, 1946 (5.46). Unprecedented in scope, Technics and Civilization helped legitimize the historical and cultural study of technology, becoming a foundational, if not the foundational, text in the nascent academic field of History of Technology. 8vo (6.5” x 9.5”), hardcover with dust jacket, 495 pages with chronology of key inventions and extensive bibliography at end. Mumford’s signature on his most important work is rare; a nice association copy to boot. Binding somewhat shaken. Moderate rubbing and chipping to dj. Creasing to rear flap. 1” open tear to spine head; closed tears to spine tail.
First edition, later printing of Lewis Mumford’s magnum opus, a magisterial study of the development of machine technics, proposing technology as a cultural phenomenon, pushing the genesis of the modern industrial world back to the Middle Ages with the invention of the clock and the time-discipline and work ethic of the monastery, and arguing for human efficacy against a current of technological determinism. Signed on the title page by Mumford beneath his name, and on the front free endpaper by a previous owner, the cultural anthropologist and pioneering ethnographer of the sub-Arctic, Catherine McClellan. First published by Harcourt, Brace and Company in 1934; this printing dated to May, 1946 (5.46). Unprecedented in scope, Technics and Civilization helped legitimize the historical and cultural study of technology, becoming a foundational, if not the foundational, text in the nascent academic field of History of Technology. 8vo (6.5” x 9.5”), hardcover with dust jacket, 495 pages with chronology of key inventions and extensive bibliography at end. Mumford’s signature on his most important work is rare; a nice association copy to boot. Binding somewhat shaken. Moderate rubbing and chipping to dj. Creasing to rear flap. 1” open tear to spine head; closed tears to spine tail.
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