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Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology; Part 2, Agriculture - Hardcover

Needham, Joseph; Bray, Francesca

  • 4.35 out of 5 stars
    20 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780521250764: Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology; Part 2, Agriculture
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0521250765 ISBN 13: 9780521250764
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1984

Synopsis

This second part of the sixth volume of Joseph Needham's great enterprise is the first to be written by a collaborator. Francesca Bray, working closely with Dr Needham, has produced the most comprehensive study of Chinese agriculture to be published in the West. From a huge mass of source material, often confusing and obscure, and from first-hand study in China, she brings order and illumination to a crucial area of Chinese technological development. The main body of the book is an account of the technological history of agriculture, with major sections devoted to field systems, implements and techniques (sowing, harvesting, storing) and crop systems (what has grown and where and how crops rotated). The concluding section contrasts Europe's Agricultural Revolution with agrarian change in North China in the Han and with the 'Green Revolution' in South China in the Sung. In the theoretical analysis which concludes this section we find a vital contribution to the elucidation of the main question posed by Dr Needham's work: why did the Scientific Revolution which transformed the world take place in Europe and not in China?

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Book Description

This second part of the sixth volume of Joeph Needham's great enterprise is an account of the technological history of agriculture, with major sections devoted to field systems, implements and techniques (sowing, harvesting, storing) and crop systems (what has grown and where and how crops rotated).

Review

"[An] astonishing and enduring study...[Needham brings] depth of emotion and technical finesse to his task."
Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books

"Perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and intercultural communication ever attempted by one man."
Laurence Picken, Cambridge University

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication date
1984
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0521250765
ISBN 13 
9780521250764
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
768
Rating
  • 4.35 out of 5 stars
    20 ratings by Goodreads