W. H. G. Armytage 
Social History of Engineering [PDF ebook] 

How social and economic conditions have precipitated advances in engineering. A Social History of Engineering shows how social and economic conditions in each age have precipitated advances in engineering. There are, in short, economic, political, and philosophical implications in changing technologies. While the book begins with the Stone Age, the Greeks, and the Romans, the bulk of the volume concentrates on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A Social History of Engineering reflects Professor Armytage’s special subject area interests, namely nineteenth-century industrial society, radical and socialist movements, the history of professional organization, and the study of higher and technical education.