Here is a concise survey of the history of technology and science over four centuries. In constructing this account, Professor Brose weaves a fabric from three histories which, until now, have been thought of as mutually exclusive. The history of technology, the history of science, and the history of economic development leading to the Industrial Revolution have been developed to a large degree separately.

Few historians have attempted a synthesis such as this which demonstrates the relationship between them and general political developments in a way which produces a rounded account, with each strand playing its part in supporting and interacting with the others.

The narrative starts with the opening of the modern historical epoch around 1500 and ends with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and covers events in both Europe and the United States. Brose constructs his account from the standpoint of technological systems - the idea that each epoch evolves a system to meet the material demands of society - and the rise and fall of each such system within the period.