When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850Oxford University Press, 28.12.2000 - 260 Seiten Although the Information Age is often described as a new era, a cultural leap springing directly from the invention of modern computers, it is simply the latest step in a long cultural process. Its conceptual roots stretch back to the profound changes that occurred during the Age of Reason and Revolution. When Information Came of Age argues that the key to the present era lies in understanding the systems developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to gather, store, transform, display, and communicate information. The book provides a concise and readable survey of the many conceptual developments between 1700 and 1850 and draws connections to leading technologies of today. It documents three breakthroughs in information systems that date to the period: the classification and nomenclature of Linnaeus, the chemical system devised by Lavoisier, and the metric system. It shows how eighteenth-century political arithmeticians and demographers pioneered statistics and graphs as a means for presenting data succinctly and visually. It describes the transformation of cartography from art to science as it incorporated new methods for determining longitude at sea and new data on the measure the arc of the meridian on land. Finally, it looks at the early steps in codifying and transmitting information, including the development of dictionaries, the invention of semaphore telegraphs and naval flag signaling, and the conceptual changes in the use and purpose of postal services. When Information Came of Age shows that like the roots of democracy and industrialization, the foundations of the Information Age were built in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. |
Inhalt
3 | |
The Language of Science | 15 |
The Origin of Statistics | 59 |
Maps and Graphs | 96 |
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias | 142 |
Postal and Telegraphic Systems | 181 |
Past and Present | 217 |
Selected Bibliography | 221 |
Credits | 223 |
224 | |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason ... Daniel R. Headrick Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2000 |
When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason ... Daniel R. Headrick Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2000 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Academy Adolphe Quetelet Age of Reason alphabetical order American binomial nomenclature botanical Britain Britannica British carte de France Cartography Cassini census Chappe Chart Chart of Biography Chicago classification Claude Chappe communication démographie Dictionnaire Dupâquier and Dupâquier Early Thematic Mapping editions eighteenth century electric telegraph Encyclopédie Encyclopédie méthodique England English Dictionary Enlightenment Ephraim Chambers Europe français France French Geoffrey Wilson graphical graphs Guyton Histoire historique History Ibid information systems John Kafker knowledge Kula Language of Chemistry later Lavoisier letters lines Linnaean Linnaeus Linnaeus’s Linné London longitude method metric system names Napoleonic natural nomenclature optical telegraph Ordnance Survey Panckoucke Paris philosophes plants Playfair political population Post Office postal system published Quantification Quetelet Quoted reform Revolution in Measurement royal Rusnock scientific signals Society species Stafleu statistics survey Télégraphie thousand tion University Press Victorian Social Medicine vols volumes weights and measures William William Playfair words Zupko