The Diffusion of "Small" Western Technologies in the Middle East
Invention, Use and Need in the 19th and 20th Centuries
- 290 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Diffusion of "Small" Western Technologies in the Middle East
Invention, Use and Need in the 19th and 20th Centuries
About this book
In recent years we have become interested in the diffusion of "small" Western technologies in the countries of the Middle East during the 19th and 20th centuries, the era of Imperialism and first globalization. We postulated a contrast between "small" and "big" technologies. Under the latter category we may understand railway systems, electricity grids, telegraph networks, and steam navigation, imposed by foreign powers or installed by connected local entrepreneurs. But many "small" Western technologies, such as sewing machines, typewriters, pianos, eyeglasses, and similar consumer goods, which had been developed and manufactured in Europe and America, were wanted, and willingly acquired by the agency of individual users elsewhere. In a few cases, however, the inventions had to be adapted, or were overstepped, and even delayed. Some were adopted as social markers or status symbols only by elites who could afford them. Processes of adoption and diffusion therefore differed according to cultural settings, preferences, and needs. Social and cultural historians, and social scientists, not only of the Middle East, will find in this collection of essays a new approach to the impact of Western technological inventions on the Middle East.
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Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- A note on transliteration
- Introduction
- 1 Who needed department stores in Egypt?
- 2 On the diffusion of “Small” Western technologies and consumer goods in the Middle East
- 3 The social history of the sewing machine in the Middle East
- 4 Leapfrogging from typewriter to personal computer in the Middle East
- 5 From Ibn Haitham to Abou Naddara and Al-Misri Effendi: eyeglasses in the Middle East
- 6 Did the piano have a chance in the Middle East?
- List of Figures
- Index of proper names
- Index of geographical names
- Index of subjects