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Mumford's argument in this book is that in our considerations of human history and progress, we have too often taken the machine and its technical elements to be of primacy, ignoring the related developments in human thinking and culture that enabled our "technical" inventions to flourish. For the most part, like Mumford's other books, this thesis is worked out in an engaging, entertaining, and interesting manner. And, like in his other books, the last chapter or two flag some, get a bit repetitive, and conclude with a bit more hope than is perhaps warranted following the conclusions of the earlier chapters. But altogether, this volume asks some important questions about how we consider the technological history of mankind, and how those things relate to the development of human culture. Having spent considerable time with Mumford and his works in the last several months, I can say that this was among his most provocative without being confrontational, and so reads with a bit more energy than some of his other long works.