Recommended by 3 notable people, including Paul Graham and Patrick Collison
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See customer reviews on Amazon →Dense and argumentative rather than anecdotal, this book walks through how concrete technological changes — new mills, harnesses, and agricultural implements — altered labor patterns and landed power in medieval Europe. Its useful part is the clear line it draws between material innovations and changing social arrangements, supported by period examples. Its main limitation is a dated, sometimes deterministic tone and an academic prose style that assumes patience; readers seeking modern theoretical nuance or comparative global perspective may find it narrow.
This summary and audience guidance are AI-generated from the book's description and its recommendation history, last updated May 2026. Recommendations, quotes and sources elsewhere on this page come from published material and are not generated.
In Medieval Technology, and Social Change, Lynn White considers the effects of technological innovation on the societies of medieval Europe: the slow collapse of feudalism with the development of machines and tools that introduced factories in place of cottage industries, and the development of the manorial system with the introduction of new kinds ...
Difficulty:hard
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View available editions on AmazonWhy recommended
Recommended by 6 sources and appears in Books Recommended by Paul Graham, Most Recommended Books, and Technology.
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
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Consider Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen. Recommended by 10 sources.
“Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.”
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
