How long does it take to read Technics and Civilization?
Technics and Civilization by Lewis Mumford takes about 9 hours 5 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 9 hours 5 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1934. 495 pages, about 136,125 words.
19 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 15 hours 8 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 9 hours 5 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 40 minutes |
The page count is the median across 11 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
'Technics and Civilization' first presented its compelling history of the machine and critical study of its effects on civilization in 1934 -- before television, the personal computer, and the Internet. Drawing upon art, science, philosophy, and the history of culture, Lewis Mumford explained the origin of the machine age and traced its social results, asserting that the development of modern technology had its roots in the Middle Ages rather than the Industrial Revolution. Mumford sagely argued that it was the moral, economic, and political choices we made, not the machines that we used, that determined our then industrially driven economy. Equal parts powerful history and polemic criticism, 'Technics and Civilization' was the first comprehensive attempt in English to portray the development of the machine age over the last thousand years -- and to predict the pull the technological still holds over us today.
Subjects: Civilization, History, Industrial arts, Inventions, Power (Mechanics), Social aspects
