book
The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900
Edgerton, David. The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Why this matters here
Edgerton’s The Shock of the Old argues that history of technology should center use, maintenance, and persistence of older systems—not only moments of invention—because practical arrangements often outlast the dramas of novelty. Living in Sediment extends that insight to infrastructures such as railroads and the thirty-year mortgage: solutions built for immediate pressures can harden into seeming inevitabilities for generations yet unborn. The book asks how to recognize sediment while it is still settling, when the present arrives all at once and clarity comes only later.
