Try "Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery". It goes year-by-year through each major scientific discovery up until the mid 1980s, when it was written. Highly enjoyable.
Ask HN: What's a good history of technology book?
11–13 of 13 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's a good history of technology book?
#12John D. Clark's "Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants" is back in print as of a few months ago, and pretty readable overall (but does venture into some of the less travelled corners of chemistry as well...)
For computer stuff, Tracey Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" is one of my favourites.
Re: Ask HN: What's a good history of technology book?
#13In my "History of Technology" course in college we read, "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder. More of a journalist's history of how a team built a new computer.
Does it go through the history of the things they use to build it with or is it more a technical account?
It has both, but more of the personal interest side. A good study of the culture at Data General and mileu of computing at the time. Kidder did a good job of explaining it to his audience when computers were still very new. He won a Pulitzer for it.