The bestselling core book traces the relationship between science and technology from the dawn of civilization to the early twenty-first century. The authors argue that technology as "applied science" emerged relatively recently, as industry and governments began funding scientific research that would lead directly to new or improved technologies.
McClellan and Dorn identify two great scientific traditions: the useful sciences, which societies patronized from time immemorial, and the exploration of questions about nature itself, which the ancient Greeks originated. They examine scientific traditions that took root in China, India, and Central & South America, as well as in a series of Near Eastern empires in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. From this comparative perspective, the authors survey the rise of the West, the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, the Industrial Revolution, and the modern marriage of science and technology. In the process they raise provocative questions about the sustainability of industrial civilization.
The core book was written as an introduction for general readers and students to provide the "big picture" that an educated person might wish to have of the history of science and technology. A bit of math and astronomy might be helpful in a few places, but the SDG requires no technical background as a prerequisite.
Part I: Origins to the End of Antiquity
Week 1: Chapter 1 - Humankind Emerges: Tools & Toolmakers
Chapter 2 - The Reign of the Farmer
Chapter 3 - Pharaohs & Engineers
Week 2: Chapter 4 - Greeks Bearing Gifts
Chapter 5 - Alexandria & After
Part II: Thinking and Doing Among the World's Peoples
Week 3: Chapter 6 - The Enduring East
Chapter 7 - The Middle Kingdom
Week 4: Chapter 8 - Indus, Ganges & Beyond
Chapter 9 - The New World
Part III: Europe and the Solar System
Week 5: Chapter 10 - Plows, Stirrups, Guns & Plagues
Chapter 11 - Copernicus Incites a Revolution
Week 6: Chapter 12 - The Crime & Punishment of Galileo Galilei
Chapter 13 - "God said, 'Let Newton Be!' "
Part IV: Science, Technology & Industrial Civilization
Week 7: Chapter 14 - Textiles, Timber, Coal & Steam
Chapter 15 - Legacies of Revolution: From Newton to Einstein
Chapter 16 - Life Itself
Week 8: Chapter 17 - Toolmakers Take Command
Chapter 18 - The New Aristotelians
Week 9: Chapter 19 - The Bomb, the Internet & the Genome
Chapter 20 - Under Today's Pharaohs
McClellan III, James E. and Harold Dorn; Science and Technology in World History, Third Edition; John Hopkins University Press; 2015