What does the invention
of the stirrup in Medieval Europe have to do with one of today's
hottest publishing phenomena? And what do the color mauve, the Fender
bass, cod, and the Model T Ford all have in common? The answers
begin unraveling in the halls of academe forty years ago.
Lynn White was a faculty member at UCLA who was fascinated by
how inventions shaped history. In 1962 he wrote a book called
"Medieval Technology and Social Change."
White's theory was that the stirrup changed history. Charles
Martel, White's theory goes, discovered that stirrups allowed
a mounted knight to wear armor, carry a lance and become much
more effective than cavalry had ever been.
According to White, Martel created a whole class of "shock warriors"
to ride his stirruped horses. He distributed church land to support
them, creating the basis for feudalism. The rest, as they say,
is history.
That's all it might have been, confined to the dusty realms of
academic debate. In fact, scholars have shown that White's theory
was wrong on several counts. Wrong or not, it was a fascinating
way to look at history and it caught the attention of one James
Burke.
In 1974, James Burke read White's book and had one of those moments
of flashing insight. He was working a series for the BBC about
the history of technology. He saw how powerful White's technique
was: take an event or two from history and trace the impacts all
the way down to the present.
Shortly before Jacob Bronowski had put together a series for
the BBC called "The Ascent of Man." That series, and the book
that was written to go with it, was a powerful, personal look
at how civilization had developed.
Burke was impressed by Bronowski's personal approach and by what
was then a unique documentary technique. When Bronowski would
talk about something, such as Japanese sword making, the BBC put
him in the actual setting.
Burke took White's method of thinking about history and combined
it with Bronowski's personal style and documentary technique.
The result was "Connections."
"Connections" was a hit on the BBC. When it aired on PBS in the
US it was the most popular documentary ever. Viewers of the show
and readers of the book were fascinated by this wonderful, interdisciplinary
way to look at history and how our world developed.
"Connections" was different from what most of us had experienced.
Our education had mostly been separate, discreet disciplinary
bits. We took history, then, next period, we marched down the
hall and took mathematics. The period after that was science,
then geography.
"Connections" was different and incredibly interesting because
it mixed the history and the mathematics and the science and the
geography together with commerce and music and all kinds of things.
It was just like real life and, to make it even more interesting,
everything was presented like a grand detective story.
"Connections" became the model for many a writer. Today, books
about this or that event or invention that changed the world are
coming fast and furious. The first one that I noticed was "Longitude:
The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific
Problem of His Time"by Dava Sobel.
It was a great book. It was also a best seller and we all know
that were one best seller goes, other books are soon to follow.
Today, if you type the words "changed the world" into Amazon,
you'll get over 5000 references. Among them are books about the
color mauve, the Fender bass, cod, and the Model T Ford, as well
as other books about lean production, radar, spices, gunpowder
and more.
Is this all hokum? Is it possible that all these things, significant
and insignificant, actually changed the world. The answer to that
one is a qualified "yes."
If we subscribe to chaos theory, even the smallest changes in
a complex, dynamical system affect the entire system forever.
Each event, each invention, each of us leaves a mark on the world.
When we have passed through, the world is different and will always
be so.
Lynn White may have been wrong about exactly how the invention
of the stirrup affected civilization, but we can be sure that
it did. Everything leaves a mark. And so what the color mauve,
the Fender bass, cod, the Model T Ford and you and I all have
in common is that we have changed the world.
Top of page
Here's the
one that started it all, Lynn White's "Medieval
Technology and Social Change."
And Jacob Bronowski's "Ascent
of Man." Even thirty years later, this series and book remain
compelling and interesting.
"Connections"
by James Burke brings together the historical technique of Lynn
White and the presentation of Bronowski.
Just about anything by Burke is likely to be interesting, but
I want to point you to his newest enterprise. It's
called "The Knowledge Web" and, of course, includes a book by
that name.
Even more interesting than the book, though, is the Knowledge
Web Project. Here's how the Web site for the project describes
it.
"An interactive educational tool, the Knowledge Web not only
informs about the scientists, artists, innovators, and explorers
of history, but also reveals the connections between them. Navigating
through a dynamic database of knowledge, Knowledge Web users not
only learn about history's movers and shakers in their own context
but also how they impact modern life. Users can begin with any
subject: Start with ice cream and track the connections to Einstein,
or enter through the gateway of global warming and explore the
way to chewing gum or Humboldt.
Content for the initial Knowledge Web database is being compiled
from the research James Burke has collected over his career. With
continuing contributions from subject matter experts, the Knowledge
Web library can grow to include a theoretically unlimited amount
of information."
"Longitude:
The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific
Problem of His Time" by Dava Sobel is the book that kicked
off the recent fad.
And here are just a few of the recent "changed the world" books.
31 August 2004
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