Guns, Sails, and Empires
by Caro M. Cipolla · first published 1985
3mentions
2recommended by
2HN commenters
2009–2014first – last mentioned
100% recommend
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Carlo Cipolla was a great historian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Maria_Cipolla I particularly recommend Guns, Sails, and Empires and Clocks and Culture.
on “Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” ↗…title sounds boring, but this one of those books that just cranks your brain open. There is so much new stuff in it. Or at least, stuff that was new when it was published in the 1960s. Carlo Cipolla's Guns, Sails, and Empires is a close second. His Clocks and Culture is also very good; the prologue is probably the best 21 page summary of the history of western technology that you could find anywhere.
on “Ask HN: What history of economics and technology book would you recommend?” ↗…The World We Have Lost Bernal, The Extension of Man Franklin, Autobiography Girouard, Life in the English Country House Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople Cipolla, Guns, Sails and Empires Hadas, A History of Rome Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages Vasari, Lives of the Artists Bovill, The Golden Trade of the Moors Caesar, Gallic Wars Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution
on “The IPO is dying – Marc Andreessen explains why” ↗