Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich, the author of the book, A Little History of the World, wrote the book with a reason. He didn’t create the book because the idea just popped into his mind; he had a purpose to write this book. It was because he loved history and his passion towards the subject made this book interesting. However, how reliable is his book?
E. H. Gombrich (1909-2001) was borned in Vienna, Austria. Gombrich attended the University of Vienna (1928-1933), where his major was the art history. Later in 1936, Gombrich arrived in London, England, where he became the research assistant in Warburg Institute. This proves his reliability of the information he has put in the book, as he attended a well known university in Vienna and was a research assistant in England.
Ernst Gombrich’s works wouldn’t be popular right away, if Gombrich himself was not popular. A Little History of the World was one of the earliest works, Gombrich became to be known of. After this book became popular, selling over 500,000 books which is impressive for a university press. After this book, Gombrich has sold the most popular book he has ever made in 1950, The Story of Art, which was translated into 34 languages and was accepted by the universities as a textbook. There were over 6 million copies sold in 2011. This shows how Gombrich’s books are acknowledged and recommended by millions of people to be read. Therefore, A Little History of the World is coming from a reliable source, as most of the author’s books are acknowledged by the people.
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Although there were some downs on the progress, like the Dark Ages, where the “good Roman laws were forgotten and the beautiful Greek statues had been smashed to pieces (Gombrich 110), Gombrich has proven that there was more progress in human’s potentials.
What makes a difference between humans and the rest of the animals are that humans are capable of using tools for the benefits. Gombrich has presented the progress in technology, by using an example of the earliest tools ever found. Those were the tools made by prehistoric people in the Stone Age. This was the revolutionary stage of the progress in technology, as we, the humans, were the first ones, to ever use tools for their own benefit. However, all these inventions came out naturally. Compared to other animals, humans had a larger brain. Therefore, primitive people began to question how to live better, which then resulted in creating the tools. As the author of the text has said, “Isn’t it amazing thought that, one day, a prehistoric man… must have realised that meat from wild animals was easier to chew if it was held over a fire?” (Gombrich 6-7) These tools that were made unintentionally from the primitive people, opened an era of technological achievements. Tools were made accidently as prehistoric men tried to live more comfortably. Because of the positive progress in technology, “when we are talking, or eating some bread, using tools or warming ourselves by fire, we should remember those early people with gratitude, for they were the greatest inventors of all time.” (Gombrich
After reading "A History of the World in Six Glasses" by Tom Standage I found beer the most interesting beverage discussed in his book. I thought it was fascinating how the location and events of the first civilizations played a role in the discover of beer. I was also intrigued by the effects that beer had on the political, economic, and social aspects of these new civilizations. "The event that set humankind on the path towards modernity was the adoption of farming…" (Standage Pg.2) also known as the agricultural revolution. Some anthropologists have even suggested beer was one of the factors that played into the adoption of agriculture.
2nd "Eric Foner. " American History. ABC-CLIO, 2016. Web. 13 May 2016.
As time passed, they invented and advanced tools to make hunting simpler and to cure more diseases. Even today, simple actions such as going to school are because of the knowledge and skills you need for your future occupation in order to make capitals to support living. In conclusion, verything we’ve invented and carried out was to promote our
Throughout history, technology was created
While reading “The Trouble with (the Term) Art,” written by Carolyn Dean in the summer of 2006, we are taken through an array of different scenarios that lead us to questions what art really is. Dean explores the idea that the word “art” is used far too often and too habitually, and that as we study the non-Western cultures we need to use much more discretion regarding what we call the different pieces of their culture. Throughout the essay, Dean supports her thesis that we too often categorize non-Western pieces as art by using different examples of how certain non-art pieces were deemed as art throughout the course of their history. Dean does this by using four key examples of how these ancient pieces are inappropriately called art to successfully support her thesis and avoid biases.
Byrn argument is based through the thought that in order to have a vision of progress one has to look back at past developments that have happened throughout the world so far and take a sense of why it has shaped the notion of progress in today’s world. In Edward W. Byrn’s article, “The Progress of Invention During the Past Fifty Years”, Byrn leans towards the example of the United States in which it has created a sense of progress through the notion of development. To be specific, Byrn states, “To him what a vista it must present; what a convergence of the perspective; for the past fifty years represents an epoch of invention and progress unique in this history of the world” (Byrn 1896). Byrn is explaining that during this time, man only looked upon the past as an example to progress mankind through many inventions.
As you can see, the pollution had reached such an extent that rivers were bordering between water, and sewer filth (Faraday). Major company owners such as J.P. Morgan received a bad reputation for exploiting workers, however, not all company owners were cut from the same cloth. It would have been difficult for these owners, caught up in the frenzy of commerce to be omnipresent in all of their factories at one time. As a result, an unsupervised factory owner, much like a tax collector in Biblical times, would take certain liberties, and decide to increase profit without looking to the welfare of the labor force (The Industrial Revolutionists).
Our technology and the way people have lived their lives have advanced for the duration of many generations, because of the Industrial Revolution in England. Although people may have perceived that the Industrial Revolution incorporated many negative consequences for the society because of long-term injuries and illnesses, it was actually a positive step for the society. The Industrialization’s positive effects were increased productivity of industries, better financial opportunities, and population growth. Finally, these positive effects is what has led the advances of what the people of this generation have currently.
In all seven documents, you can see all are struggling with struggle of not having enough tools or technology to complete their tasks. As you read these documents you can see that most of our of our technology would have helped make their lives much easier. Document one shows us that even without the advanced technology we have today we can still manage to survive on the little things we have. This plant did the tasks of several things while it still managed to be one. The “Maguey Plant” found in the valley of Mexico in the early 16th century handled the fourteen “advanced technologies” we have.
According to Lens¬ki’s, he explains how technology has shaped the human society. The Geographic luck hypothesis of resource distribution consist of how the Europeans conquest was so successful. People used variations of things such as food production, germs, animals, and steel. In the past, in order for people to survive they had to learn how to plant their crops and breed their animals.
Documents 2 and 5 show the attitude of each society towards technological development. Doc. 2, written by a Han government official in the first century BC, demonstrates that the Chinese wanted to improve the quality of the tools to increase the productivity and efficiency. On the other hand,
People today can already see the social impacts that technology has had on there lives today, when comparing them to 5 to 10 years ago. Engineers and scientist are already trying to figure how to program our laws into robots and make them as safe as possible to be around humans. But with programmers trying to make robots as humanly possibly it does make you question and rethink yourself as to what direction is technology heading towards. The aspects of this essay brings up not just the currents issues but also further issues that we may have over natural resources. To build more technology, you need more minerals and much of today’s minerals are controlled by foreign countries.
The world is ever changing through technological advances, innovative ideas and a need to further advance our society. Innovation has become an essential part of society. Individual viewpoints have been provided to understand concepts leading to improvement however the most prevailing viewpoints being that of Gerhard Lenski, Leslie White, and Alvin Toffler. To get a predominant cognizance of these thoughts, it is fundamental to take a look at and get these three viewpoints and the crucial part they play in depicting the improvement for development. Gerhard Lenski specified that technological progress is the motivation behind civilization evolving throughout history.
We also modified the axe by using different metals for the blade of the axe and changing them throughout the years. People in the past made a big impact in our life now, given an example of without the people the past we wouldn’t even be existing. Without knowing about their mistakes and their successes we would have had to go through their failures and sadness. Also if the past people never made any tools we wouldn’t have the things we use in the modern day, they influenced our culture and moral. (Direct
Technology can be defined as “the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment”. (n.d.) Therefore, when we speak of technological evolution we can say that it is an “innovation and technology related hypothesis that describes the fundamental change of society through technical development”. Different theorists have their own perspective on the evolution of technology but, although each of their views differs from another, they shared certain common features, mechanism, and incidence in technology. Some theorists have developed distinct approaches to understanding the nature of the technological process and the relationship between technological development and the social world.