John U. Nef, The Conquest of the Material World

Bibliographic Data

ID4876035
AuthorsLeonard N Rosenband (0000-0002-2873-3869, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume44
Issue2
Pages364-370
Publication date2003-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTechnology and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0040-165X • E-ISSN: 1097-3729
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/tech.2003.0087
OpenAlexW2016677763
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

Although John U. Nef never reduced European history to the pursuit of ever more "heat energy," there were moments in his many works when it seemed so. For Nef, coal was the mainspring of European and especially British ascendancy, the impulse behind the mechanization that he feared had taken command of human destiny. Moreover, the heat energy released by atomic weapons seared his imagination; the scholar who had centered the industrial revolution on a vast shift in humanity's ability to mobilize the earth's storehouse of energy now trembled before this destructive power. Thus the peculiar tension that haunted Nef's collected essays, The Conquest of the Material World, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1964. A celebration of Europe's increasing proficiency in mining and metallurgy, it was also the search for a moral compass that would prevent our self-destruction in a burst of mushroom clouds

Ancient history · Archaeology · CONQUEST · Destiny (ISS module) · Economic history · German · Humanity · Industrial Revolution · Political science · Skepticism · Theology · Engineering · History · Law · Philosophy · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub