Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West

Book excerpt: Seeking to understand the cultural origins of the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, this text first looks at the scientific culture of the seventeenth century, focusing not only on England but following through with a study of the history of science and technology in France, the Netherlands, and Germany. Comparative in structure, this text explains why England was so much more successful at this transition than its continental counterparts. It also integrates science with worldly concerns, focusing mainly on the entrepreneurs and engineers who possessed scientific insight and who were eager to profit from its advantages, demonstrating that during the mid-seventeenth century, British science was presented within an ideological framework that encouraged material prosperity.