Fifty Years of Medieval Technology and Social Change

This volume brings together a series of papers at Kalamazoo as well as some contributed papers inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Lynn White Jr.a€?s, Medieval Technology and Social Change (Oxford University Press, 1962), a slim study which catalyzed the study of technology in the Middle Ages in the English-speaking world. While the initial reviews and decades-long fortune of the volume have been varied, it is still in print and remains a touchstone of an idea and a time. The contributors to the volume, therefore, both investigate the book itself and its fate, and look at new research furthering and inspired by Whitea€?s work. The booka€?s structure is divided into three sections. The first three papers deal explicitly with the reception and longevity of Lynn White Jr.a€?s work and its impact on medieval studies more generally. Then two groups of three papers look at areas where Whitea€?s work has had a particular impact, namely medieval technology studies and medieval rural/ecological studies.

Steven A. Walton is an assistant professor of history in the Dept. of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University, USA, and is a former President of AVISTA. He was formerly a member of the Penn State Center for Medieval Studies and is now directing students in the MTU program for Industrial Archaeology. His primary scholarly work is on the intersections between science, technology and the military, particularly in the early modern world and antebellum America.