# Readings

## Key

[DC] = Christian, David. Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. University of California Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780520244764. [Preview with Google Books]

Reading files.
LEC # | TOPICS | READING ASSIGNMENTS | READING NOTES
--- | --- | --- | ---
Unit 1: Humankind as a History-making Species
1 | Introduction to class and key concepts | Marx, Leo. "Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept." Technology and Culture 51 (July 2010): 561-577. | (PDF)
2 | What is technology? What is history (and prehistory)? Visitor: Prof. Leo Marx) | Careful rereading of Marx, "Technology…" [DC], Chapters 6 and 7 ### Optional Williams, R. "Base and Superstructure." Chapter 2.1 in Marxism and Literature. Oxford University Press, 1978, pp. 75-82. ISBN: 9780198760610. | (PDF)
3 | Technology in prehistory: cave art | Wade, N. "The Long Struggle Against the Neanderthals." In Before the Dawn. Penguin Books, 2006, pp. 90-94. ISBN: 9781594200793. Mithen, Steven. "Of Ice and Men." The Times Educational Supplement, September 5, 2003. ### Optional "Mapping the Neanderthal Genome: A Conversation with Svante Pääbo." Edge, 7.4.09. |
4 | Technology in "prehistory" | Auel, J. M. Chapter 7 of The Clan of the Cave Bear. Pp. 95-112. ISBN: 9780553250428. Goldstein, Joseph. "The New Age Cavemen and the City." The New York Times, January 10, 2010. |
5 | Historical Analogies | Mumford, "Democratic and Authoritarian Technics." Technology and Culture 5, no. 1 (1964): 1-8. |
Unit 2: Civilizations Based on Agriculture
6 | The Neolithic Revolution | [DC], Chapter 8 Smith, B. D. "The Ultimate Ecosystems Engineers." Science 315 (March 30, 2007): 1797-8. | (PDF)
7 | Introduction to MIT's 150th anniversary: class visit to MIT archives |  |
8 | Discuss visit to Archives | Diamond, Jared. "Twilight at Easter." Chapter 2 in Collapse. Penguin Books, 2011. ISBN: 9780143117001. McNeill, J. R. "Making Historical Comparisons." American Scientist 98 (September-October 2010): 434-436. |
9 | Civilizations and Empires (part two) | [DC], Chapter 9 | (PDF)
10 | Technohistorical Revolutions (part one) | [DC], Chapter 10 | (PDF)
11 | Technohistorical Revolutions (part two) | [DC], Chapter 11 | (PDF)
12 | Agrarian Civilizations (part one): megalithic agrarian civilizations |  |
13 | Agrarian Civilizations (part two): the Roman Empire as an agrarian civilization | ### Optional Bohannon, J. "The Nile Delta's Sinking Future." Science 327, no. 5972 (March 19, 2010): 1444-1447. |
Unit 3: Civilizations Based on Fossil Fuels
14 | The Industrial Revolution | [DC], Chapter 12 Jennings, H. Selections 47, 51, 70, 86, 100, 103, 119, 125, 130, 137, 174 in Pandaemonium 1660-1886: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers. The Free Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780029164709. | (PDF)
15 | Visit to MIT Museum | [DC], Chapter 13 | (PDF)
16 | The Second Industrial Revolution (part one) |  |
17 | The Second Industrial Revolution (part two) | Marx, K., and F. Engels. Communist Manifesto. Part One (Bourgeois and Proletarians). Schivelbusch, W. Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light. University of California Press, 1995, pp. 58-78, 213-221. ISBN: 9780520203549. [Preview with Google Books] ----. "Panoramic Travel." Chapter 4 in The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century. University of California Press, 1987, pp. 52-69. ISBN: 9780520059290. [Preview with Google Books] ### Optional Mintz, S. W. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. Penguin Books, 1986, pp. 47-73, 166-186. ISBN: 9780140092332. | (PDF)
Unit 4: Human Empire
18 | The Second Industrial Revolution (part three) | First half of Hersey, J. Hiroshima. Vintage, 1989 [originally published in The New Yorker, 1946]. ISBN: 9780679721031. |
19 | The Second Industrial Revolution (part four) | Finish Hersey, Hiroshima. |
20 | From Industry to Battlefield Chemical Engineering at MIT | [DC], Chapter 14 | (PDF)
21 | Ground Zero (part one) | Selections from Miyagawa, S., and J. Dower. Visualizing Cultures. Ground Zero 1945: Pictures by Atomic Bomb Survivors Ground Zero 1945: A Schoolboy's Story |
22 | Ground Zero (part two) |  |
23 | Looking Back and Beyond: General review of MIT 150 | ### Optional Williams, R. Chapter 1 (excerpt) and chapter 2 in Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological Change. The MIT Press, 2002, pp. 18-89. ISBN: 9780262232234. [Preview with Google Books] Terborgh, J. "The World Is in Overshoot." The New York Review of Books, December 3, 2009, pp. 45-47. |
24 | Looking Back and Beyond: Presentations and discussion on "what is the role of technology in history?" | [DC], Chapter 15 |
25 | Looking Back and Beyond: Presentations and discussion on "what is the role of technology in history?" |  |