The Word and the Sword

The author provides a fascinating and readable account of how eight technologies transformed social and political-military structures. His four military technologies are: metal weapons, first bronze, then iron; heavy cavalry, whose introduction had much to do with the declining ability of the Roman empire to defeat the barbarians; artillery, that ended the Medieval use of castles as fortresses; steam transport that facilitated spatial movement in a way that foot and horse travel could not. The four informational technologies are writing, that created the first efficient bureaucracies; printing, that spread literacy to the masses; mass media that allowed information (and misinformation)… show more.