Impossible Engineering
Technology and Territoriality on the Canal du Midi
- Editore:
Princeton University Press
- EAN:
9780691140322
- ISBN:
0691140324
- Pagine:
- 328
- Formato:
- Hardback
- Lingua:
- Inglese
Descrizione Impossible Engineering
""Impossible Engineering" offers a fascinating account of the planning, construction, and interpretation of a major public-works project in seventeenth-century France. Mukerji stresses the participation of many people who have often have been written out of this story, especially the peasant workforce, which included a significant contingent of women. She also raises large general issues about the modes and limitations of human interaction with the natural world. I read this book with great pleasure."--Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"Drawing on a vast array of original archival data, "Impossible Engineering" offers an elegant and original analysis of a feat of engineering, the construction of the Canal du Midi. Mukerji weaves various strands of the story with impressive dexterity to produce an account that is undoubtedly that of a scholar at the top of her game. This is a fascinating and theoretically significant study."--Michele Lamont, Harvard University