- Category: Books » History Books » Renaissance
- Format: Paperback Learn more about the Paperback format using Tower WIKI.
- Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr
- ISBN: 0521639905
- WAPI (Tower ID): 100926246
- Release Date: January 1, 1998
- Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
- Tower.com Sales Rank: #304097 in Books (See Top 100 Books Bestsellers)
- #14068 in History Books (See Top 100 History Books Bestsellers)
- #39 in Renaissance (See Top 100 Renaissance Bestsellers)
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Product DescriptionMore Books by Alfred W. Crosby (Author)Run a Quick Search on "The Measure of Reality" by Alfred W. Crosby to Browse Related Products:Browse more products related to "The Measure of Reality"Browse more products related to "Alfred W. Crosby"Review"Despite its vast scope, 'The Measure of Reality' is coherent and even witty and should captivate anyone interested in finding out how clocks, calendars, maps, musical scores, astrolabes, accounting ledgers, mercator projections and perspective painting changed our mental landscape forever." "...Crosby discusses not only inventions such as clocks and double-entry bookkeeping, but also the rise of perspective in painting and tempo in music....his book is like a Renaissance Wunderkammer of anecdotes and quotations." "[A] brilliant provocative essay, as original and persuasive as his earlier 'Ecological Imperialism'." "...[An] engrossing study....it is a joy for anyone interested in why we think the way we think." Publisher's noteThe Measure of Reality discusses the epochal shift from qualitative to quantitative perception in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. This shift made modern science, technology, business practice, and bureaucracy possible. It affected not only the obvious - such as measurements of time and space and mathematical technique - but, equally and simultaneously, music and painting, thus proving that the shift was even more profound than once thought. The Maya conceived of a highly developed calendar; the Chinese--gunpowder and clocks; the Arab--sophisticated engineering and numerical systems. Yet Europeans were able to organize large collections of people and knowledge more efficiently than any people in their time. Why? How did the West leap from a sub-Euclidean legacy to the universe Galileo describes, to a culture that spawned navigation, astronomy, cartography, commercial and banking procedures and practical and theoretical mathematics? In this new book, Alfred Crosby boldly argues that the advances and advantages of the West lay beyond just utilizing notions of science and technology. In time, the psyche--mentalitÄ--of the West changes. The European way of thinking of the world gave them decisively important administrative, commercial, industrial and military skills. From music to maps, from philosophy to perspective in painting, from accounting to astronomy, European society became a culture, to use W.H. Audens words, to which the study of that which can be weighed and measured is a consuming love. The Wests great distinction was to meld mathematics and measurement into a mindset--to use quantification to understand everything material within time and space; to measure reality. With amusing detail and historical anecdote, Alfred Crosby takes the reader through the grand sweep of European society's progress and domination: from the origin of to orient oneself, to clocks without faces, a migrating noon, music before notes, noisy libraries and the first bottom line, his book is a collection of the marvelous that in time became the obvious in Western culture. The Measure of Reality is a dynamic work of synthesis and a thought-provoking, vivid story told by a master historian. Alfred W. Crosby is the author of five books, including the award-winning Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (CUP, 1986) a pioneering study of the relationship between human history and the environment. An essay of his is soon to be published in American Heritage magazine. If You Enjoy "The Measure of Reality (Paperback)", May We Also Recommend:
Customer Reviews for "The Measure of Reality (Paperback)" by Alfred W. Crosby (Author)There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review! Renaissance Bestsellers
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