Drawing upon art, science, philosophy, and the history of culture, this title explains the origin of the machine age and traces its social results, asserting that the development of modern technology had its roots in the Middle Ages rather than the Industrial Revolution.

Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) was a writer whose scope encompassed literary criticism, architecture, history, urban sociology, and philosophy. The author of over thirty books, he was also the architectural critic for The New Yorker for over thirty years. He was eventually honored with the United States Medal of Freedom and Knight of the Order of the British Empire.