《工程帝国》内容简介
工程师是帝国的建设者，即政治和经济帝国的活跃代理人。他们致力于建立和扩大工程技术的个人和商业帝国，这些帝国建立在持久的信任和专业知识网络的基础上，并由其维持。本书旨在从内部重新审视帝国大规模技术的文化建设路径。从勘探、测绘和测量维度，分析集体冒险精神；从蒸汽技术维度，彰显煤与火在蒸汽文化中的作用和影响；从蒸汽船技术维度，拨开蒸汽笼罩的迷雾；从铁路建设维度，书写了大英帝国铁路文化发展的篇章；从电报维度，揭示了电力及其应用进行调查和控制的通信机制。
在这部既高屋建瓴又细致入微的作品中，本·马斯登和克罗斯比·史密斯向我们展示轮船、铁路和电报如何造就了英国及其成长的帝国，并且讲述这些和其他技术是如何在其时代的工业和帝国背景下发展起来的。
本书内容新颖，深入挖掘了工业革命全盛时期的技术及其文化相互作用的丰富内涵和思想意蕴。该书不仅适合科技史研究者和学生参考，而且是对科学史感兴趣的大众读者相关知识的补充。
作者简介
本·马斯登（BenMarsden），英国阿伯丁大学科学史系主任，研究方向技术史、科学史。肯特大学科学史博士，并在利兹大学获得英国科学院奖学金。在担任现职之前，他曾获得英国科学院/皇家学会科学史研究奖学金。他为学术期刊撰写了大量文章，并出版了《瓦特的完美引擎：蒸汽和发明时代》（IconBooks，2002）。待出版著作《苏格兰学术工程师W.J.M.兰金传记》。
克罗斯比·史密斯（CrosbieSmith），英国肯特大学科学历史和文化研究中心主任。他是《能源与帝国：开尔文勋爵传记研究》（剑桥大学出版社，1989年）的合著者，《能源科学》（阿斯隆出版社和芝加哥大学出版社，1998年）的作者。这两本书分别在1990年和2000年获得了著名的科学史协会辉瑞奖。1999—2004年，他担任《英国科学史杂志》的编委。
"Engineering Empire" content introduction
Engineers are empire builders, i.e. active agents of political and economic empires. They are committed to building and expanding personal and business empires of engineering technology that are built on and sustained by enduring networks of trust and expertise. This book aims to re-examine the culture-building approach to imperial large-scale technology from the inside. Analyze the spirit of collective adventure from the dimensions of exploration, mapping and surveying. From the dimension of steam technology, it shows the function and influence of coal and fire in steam culture. From the technical dimension of steamship, clear the fog covered by steam; From the dimension of railway construction, the chapter of railway culture development in the British Empire is written. From the telegraph dimension, the communication mechanism for investigating and controlling electricity and its applications is revealed.
In this ambitious and nuanced work, Ben Marsden and Crosby Smith show us how ships, railways and the telegraph shaped Britain and the empire it grew into, and how these and other technologies developed within the industrial and imperial context of their time.
This novel book delves deep into the rich connotations and intellectual implications of the technological and cultural interplay of the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. This book is not only a reference for researchers and students of the history of science and technology, but also a supplement to the relevant knowledge of the general audience interested in the history of science.
About the author
BenMarsden is head of the History of Science Department at the University of Aberdeen, UK, with research interests in the history of Technology and the history of Science. He received a PhD in the history of Science from the University of Kent and a British Academy Fellowship at the University of Leeds. Prior to his current role, he was awarded a British Academy/Royal Society Fellowship for research in the History of Science. He has written extensively for scholarly journals and published Watt's Perfect Engine: Steam and the Age of Invention (IconBooks, 2002). To be published, A biography of W.J.M. Rankin, a Scottish academic engineer.
Crosby Smith is director of the Centre for the History and Culture of Science at the University of Kent, UK. He is co-author of Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge University Press, 1989) and author of Energy Science (Athlone Press and University of Chicago Press, 1998). These two books won the prestigious Society for the History of Science Pfizer Prize in 1990 and 2000, respectively. From 1999 to 2004, he served on the editorial board of the British Journal of the History of Science.
