Guns, Sails, and Empires

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1. mmorrisJun 2014
   I think the list mr_luc is referencing is in the second answer on this page: http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html

   EDIT: Here's the whole list, for completeness: Clark, Civilisation White, Medieval Technology and Social Change McEvedy, Penguin Atlases of Ancient and Medieval History Laslett, The World We Have Lost Bernal, The Extension of Man Franklin, Autobiography Girouard, Life in the English Country House Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople Cipolla, Guns, Sails and Empires Hadas, A History of Rome Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages Vasari, Lives of the Artists Bovill, The Golden Trade of the Moors Caesar, Gallic Wars Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution

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2. pgJan 2010
   Medieval Technology and Social Change. The title sounds boring, but this one of those books that just cranks your brain open. There is so much new stuff in it. Or at least, stuff that was new when it was published in the 1960s.

   Carlo Cipolla's Guns, Sails, and Empires is a close second. His Clocks and Culture is also very good; the prologue is probably the best 21 page summary of the history of western technology that you could find anywhere.

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3. pgSep 2009
   Carlo Cipolla was a great historian.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Maria_Cipolla

   I particularly recommend Guns, Sails, and Empires and Clocks and Culture.

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