Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages - 3 Stars

 

I read Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages by Frances & Joseph Gies for a couple of reasons. First of all, for research. My fantasy novels take place in a pre-industrial world with limited technology. I often find bits of history and ancient technology I can adapt and reimagine. This book was a good choice for that kind of information. I also enjoy reading history and learning how, where, when, and why things came about. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel offers up plenty of that too. If I were rating the book solely on the content, I would give it four stars, but if I were rating based on the organization of information, I might give it a three.

 

The book is quite informative. It reveals the origins of technologies from ancient Greece, Egypt, and China and follows the evolution of these technologies into the Middle Ages. From there, it shows how these innovative ideas spread and morphed into something more sophisticated.

In my opinion, the book got off to a slow start. The first chapter looks at a variety of worldviews regarding the definition of the Dark Ages. It discusses what years encompass the Medieval Ages (since differing world views don't agree on this), along with a brief but general mention of technology from those times and whether or not they were considered good or bad based on the various world views. While this approach may be interesting to some people, I felt it started things off on a sluggish footing. Chapter 2 kindled my interest as the author delved into technologies of ancient Egypt and how they influenced Rome and Greece and how they, in turn, often improved on those technologies coming up with upgraded or modified versions of the same inventions. What they accomplished is quite remarkable, and the book goes on to show that much of today's technology finds its roots in this history. The third chapter looks into waterwheel technology and explains how it changed economics, politics, and more.

The book covers an array of technologies before and after the Middle Ages. The insights are fascinating. However, the organization of the information is not conducive to finding something read in a previous chapter. For instance, if I wanted to revisit the section on bridges and the Crusaders, I would have to remember to look in the chapter on the Technology of the Commercial Revolution 900-1200. I would prefer it organized by "technology and inventions."

I recommend this book to people researching these topics or history buffs wanting to know more about the origins of technologies. However, if you find something of interest you might want to come back to, make sure to bookmark the page or highlight the text, or you might spend quite a bit of time hunting for it.

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