| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 142 words from this article are provided below; about 540 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Vaclav Smil. Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005. Pp. ix, 350. $35.00.

Vaclav Smil's book is intended for a popular audience and provides the general reader with clearly written overviews of the development of four key technological innovations that he argues are the foundation of modern civilization: electricity, internal combustion engines, new materials, and communication and information technology. Each of these technologies is the subject of a separate chapter intended to provide evidence for Smil's central argument that the period 1867 to 1914 marked a "profound and abrupt discontinuity with such lasting consequences [that it] has no equivalent in history" (p. 13). But the chapters on individual technologies do not provide a sustained analysis of this argument, which he presents in his opening chapter.

. . .

There are about 540 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.