"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 even appeared on our periphery. 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 industrially driven economy. Equal parts powerful history and polemic, "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.

刘易斯·芒福德（Lewis Murnford，1895-1990年），是《日晷》杂志的副总编辑，社会学评论(伦敦)的代理主编以及美国文学年报的几位主编之一。他于1935年至1937年担任纽约市高等教育董事会董事，1938年至1944年担任美国教育理事会理事。芒福德先生还是美国哲学学会会员和美国艺术与科学院院士。