Wellsprings of Achievement: Cultural and Economic Dynamics in Early Modern England and Japan ed. by Penelope Gouk

Abstract

248 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE edge of “mathematics,” e.g., in surveying and fortification, is dis­ cussed in terms of technical adaption to specific needs and of rationalized methods, easily applicable on a large scale. The book abounds in concrete examples, brought forth by metic­ ulous research in a mass of archival sources. In the absence ofa clear main thesis, the general reader may sometimes ask: “examples” of what? Dahl’s results should appeal mainly to other specialists in his field. Henrik Bjorck Dr. Bjorck is a researcher in the history of ideas and science at Goteborg Univer­ sity. He has published books and articles in Swedish on the history ofthe engineering profession and its ideology and on the cultural symbolics of technology. Wellsprings ofAchievement: CulturalandEconomicDynamics inEarly Mod­ em England andJapan. Edited by Penelope Gouk: Variorum, 1995. Pp. viii+271; figures, tables, notes, index. $77.90 (hardcover). The essays that constitute this volume aim, in the words of its edi­ tor, “first to show what insights can be gained from asking a group of academics from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to reflect on the nature and meaning of ‘achievement’ and second, to con­ sider how this exercise might inform the work of historians inter­ ested in the comparative study of cultures” (p. 5). The funding for the 1994 conference (part of a five-year program of meetings) from which these papers derived came from the Renaissance Trust, an educational charity set up by a British industrialist and engineer. Two unrelated sets of essays make up this book. In the first six (including the introduction), scholars from fields as diverse as chil­ dren’s health and economic history grapple with the general mean­ ing of achievement. Steven Shapin, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego, provides a helpful review of the literature on achievement, but few of the other pieces are useful in terms of their topics or the conclusions they reach. Readers are left with such tru­ isms as, “intelligence, creativity, and cognitive style are associated with achievement” (p. 45). Nor do the six essays making up the sec­ ond part of the book, which look at specific historical occurrences, bring readers much closer to an understanding of the nature of hu­ man achievement. Several compare in a superficial and uninformed manner relationships between religion and economic growth in Eu­ rope andJapan. Other essays, such as one that looks at the relation­ ships between the development of printing and public opinion and another that examines the apprentice system in England, are narrow in scope and make little effort to address the main theme of this book. Apparently not peer-reviewed, these papers will be oflimited inter­ est to historians. As the editor observes, “the essays brought together TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 249 here cannot be represented as a well-integrated whole” (p. 6). In­ deed, they are not; they are a hodge-podge of thoughts that fail to advance knowledge of humankind’s achievements very far. Fre­ quently based on misinformed views of history, the essays are, in fact, often misleading. Mansel G. Blackford Dr. Blackford teaches business history at Ohio State University. He is the author of The Rise ofModem Business in Great Britain, the United States andJapan (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1988) and eight other books. European Women and Preindustrial Craft. Edited by Daryl M. Hafter. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. Pp. xv+204; illustra­ tions, figures, tables, notes, index. $29.95 (cloth); $14.95 (paper). Revisiting the problem ofwomen’s work and industrialization, this collection of ten monographic essays emphasizes continuities and their meanings, but does not neglect change. Daryl Hafter provides a useful introduction to place the studies in their historiographic context, and notes five common themes on the relation of technol­ ogy and society that motivate their authors. These are: the relation­ ship of women and gender to technical skill; the extent of markets for women’s products; the moment and conditions in which the no­ tion emerged that women are less able than men in technical mat­ ters; the economic and social meaning of domestic craftwork for entrepreneurs, women workers; the ways and means by which female work was...