A study of the production and use of iron and steel in early China, and simultaneously a methodological study of the reconciliation of archaeological and written sources in Chinese cultural history. Includes chapters on the technology of iron production based on studies of artifact microstructures.

This book explores the economic history of the traditional Chinese iron industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis on the interactions among technological, economic and geographic factors. The traditional technology of iron production is described together with the ways in which it changed and developed in response to upheavals wrought by foreign competition, war and revolution and by the growth in China of a modern iron industry. Many of the book's findings are counter-intuitive, and will provide food for thought in the study of Third World industrial development. The author has written widely on the history of science and technology in China, and is currently engaged in writing the volume on ferrous metallurgy for Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China.

Ancient Chinese Inventions provides an illustrated introduction to the numerous scientific and technological inventions to which China can lay claim.

A leading historical scholar offers the definitive account of the strategies and technology that shaped the earliest Chinese dynasties--from walled defenses to chariot-driven warriors.

Develops a fresh non-Eurocentric analysis of the rise and development of the global economy in the last half-millennium.