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Jason Crawford Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.

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Founder, @rootsofprogress. I write about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Part-time consultant to @OurWorldInData. Former tech founder

40 books
Book Cover for: Leninism: Volume One, Joseph Stalin

Leninism: Volume One

Joseph Stalin
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

The answer, which a few people got, is Joseph Stalin, writing on “The Foundations of Leninism” in *Pravda* in April 1924. (Those who guessed Lenin get partial credit.) https://t.co/BhD6qmUPum

Paperback, 2019

$44.99$22.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Cybernetics: Second Edition: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Norbert Wiener

Cybernetics: Second Edition: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine

Norbert Wiener
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

Norbert Wiener, creator of “cybernetics,” was concerned about machine alignment problems in the 1960s. Good find from @arbesman: https://t.co/X2WVnu1E2T

Hardcover, 2021

$18.50$9.25 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air: Volume 2, David Jc MacKay

Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air: Volume 2

David Jc MacKay
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

@juliadewahl @ShaneMarcheson David MacKay's *Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air* has a good discussion of pumped storage https://t.co/plJmze0lb2

Out of stock

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Book Cover for: The Pivot of Civilization: Birth Control, Margaret Sanger

The Pivot of Civilization: Birth Control

Margaret Sanger
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

Margaret Sanger's incredible resilience and commitment to the cause of birth control. She opened the first birth-control clinic in the US in 1916—and lived long enough to see the Pill approved for use in the US in 1960, when she was 80 years old (!) https://t.co/qkQ0BDfrOA

Paperback, 2018

$8.95$4.47 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, Ruth Schwartz Cowan

More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave

Ruth Schwartz Cowan
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

@EdKPyros That is not the opinion of Ruth Cowan Schwartz, author of *More Work for Mother*, quoted above. She says the domestic service jobs were terrible, people were treated badly, and they eagerly took factory jobs instead.

Paperback, 1985

$22.99$11.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics, David A. Mindell

Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics

David A. Mindell
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

2. Around WW1, Elmer Sperry invented an analog computer for the navy called the “battle tracer” (Diagram from David A. Mindell, Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics) https://t.co/XDYEuNtO2s

Paperback, 2004

$37.00$18.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Erewhon, Samuel Butler

Erewhon

Samuel Butler
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

Have any of you read Samuel Butler's *Erewhon* (1872)? I picked it up expecting a sci-fi dystopia, but it turns out to be political satire. Very amusing, but I could use some exegesis

Hardcover, 2008

$21.99$10.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

John Stuart Mill
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

“Many great books appeared in 1859 – Darwin’s *Origin of Species*, Edward Fitzgerald’s *Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam*, and John Stuart Mill’s *On Liberty* come to mind – but *Self-Help* outsold them all by far.” https://t.co/bGTiRDMsQE

Paperback, 2002

$6.00$3.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970, Thomas P. Hughes

American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970

Thomas P. Hughes
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

h/t to @antonhowes for the first, and Thomas Hughes (American Genesis) for the second

Paperback, 2004

$34.00$17.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Arrowsmith: Pulitzer Prize Winner, Sinclair Lewis

Arrowsmith: Pulitzer Prize Winner

Sinclair Lewis
Jason CrawfordJason Crawford

It's fascinating that phages are becoming important, because in the 1920s and early '30s, before there were broadly effective antibiotics, phages looked like they might be the thing that would fight bacteria. This was the discovery of the doctor in Sinclair Lewis's *Arrowsmith*

Paperback, Mass Market, 2008

$7.95$3.97 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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