Labour, Science, and Technology in France, 1500–1620 by Henry Heller

Abstract

322 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE and open spaces, is a constant theme. That this character is not the product of a conscious, comprehensive design goes without saying. The legacy of Irish political and economic fortunes, Dublin has sur­ vived until the late twentieth century with much of its nineteenthcentury environment intact, not all of it attractive but much of it meaningful nonetheless. Dublin is now one of the most dynamic European cities, with considerable investment that translates into rising property values, especially in the older parts of the city. In the process, some of old Dublin can survive better, but other parts will disappear. Clearly Osborough is concerned that change in the city will, on balance, weaken the strong sense of place that is familiar to every reader of Ulysses. The adaptation of the Irish economy to high technology, includ­ ing an emphasis on higher education, is largely responsible for the city’s prosperity and growth in the 1990s. In other words, even when technology is not an obvious factor in the city’s transformation, as in the form of new civil engineering works, public utilities, and so forth, it is a major factor affecting not only the city’s rate of growth but also the social and economic composition of investment. Jobs in technology and the value added by the technology sector are shap­ ing Dublin today by creating demand for space, by generating higher per capita incomes, and by shaping cultural preferences and lifestyles, with an impact probably greater than that of railroads and waterworks in the industrial era. Given the importance of govern­ ment initiatives in facilitating Irish society’s adjustment to the op­ portunities offered by Europe and by the global economy, future historians will likely find material in legal records to understand technology’s role in the development of Dublin in the 1990s and, by implication, in many other cities of the age. Josef W. Konvitz Dr. Konvitz, an urban historian, taught at Michigan State University for two de­ cades. In 1992, hejoined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Develop­ ment (Paris), where he is now the head of the Urban Affairs Division. He has been responsible for projects on urban environmental policy, housing, distressed urban areas, infrastructures, and economic development. Labour, Science, and Technology inFrance, 1500-1620. By Henry Heller. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xii+258; illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $59.95 (hardcover). As the title promises, Henry Heller’s book explores the relation­ ship between labor practices, scientific ideology, and technological progress in sixteenth-century France. In fact, however, it also covers economic policy debates in Valois and Bourbon courts, the effect of TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 323 the civil wars on the primitive accumulation of wealth, Huguenot influence on scientific mentality, and a spirited defense of a more dynamic, more strictly Marxian view of ancien régimeFrance than that offered by the Annales school. Indeed the great virtue of this work is to collate these varied elements of sixteenth-century French soci­ ety in a way that engages numerous historiographical issues. Heller has an ax to grind. He challenges the picture of sixteenthcentury France developed by Annales founders such as Fernand Braudel and Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie. In particular, Heller hopes to employ the history of sixteenth-century technology to counter LeRoy Ladurie’s contention that before large-scale industrialization in the nineteenth century, life was bounded by a limited horizon of goods, and that history in effect “stands still” for most people in medieval and early modern Europe. In response to the Amnalistes’ use of demography and geography, Heller mobilizes work on tech­ nological innovation and protoindustrialization. Thus the author hopes to present a more “dynamic,” “interactive” model of French life before the Revolution. Further, he seeks to reintroduce a class analysis into the history of sixteenth-century France, a dimension Heller finds woefully lacking in most current studies. Heller’s partic­ ular interest is in how the organization of labor set the stage for the organization of technologies, and the role of the French wars of religion in the developmental processes of capitalism. If a takehome message can be extracted, it is...