PRE - INDUSTRIAL CITIES & TECHNOLOGY

Cities and Technology, a series of three textbooks and three Readers, explores one of the most fundamental changes in the history of human society the transition from rural to urban ways of living. This series presents a new social history of technology, using urban settings as a source of historical evidence and a focus for the interpretation of the historical relations of technology and society. Drawing on perspectives and writings from across a number of disciplines involved in urban historical studies including archaeology, urban history, historical geography and architectural history the books in the series explore how towns and cities have been shaped by applications of a range of technologies, and how such technological applications have been influenced by their contexts, including politics, economics, culture and the natural environment. This collection of original essays, Pre-industrial Cities and Technology, is designed to be used on its own or in association with the Pre-industrial Cities and Technology Reader in the same series. It is divided into three main sections: ancient cities; medieval and Early Modern cities; and pre-industrial cities in China and Africa. Among the technologies discussed are: irrigation, water transport, urban public transport, aqueducts, building materials such as brick and Roman concrete, weaponry and fortifications, street lighting and public clocks. Among the cities covered are: Uruk, Babylon, Thebes, Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Baghdad, Siena, Florence, Antwerp, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Timbuktu, Great Zimbabwe, Hangzhou, Beijing and Hankou. Colin Chant, David Goodman, Peter Elmer, Arnold Pacey, Michael Bartholomew