Dynamo and Virgin Reconsidered: Essays in the Dynamism of Western Culture

About this book

Although the cleavages of change, technological and social, have indeed alienated man from his proper past in a significant way, certain indissoluble continuities survive. That engineering and science have their roots in the Greco-Roman world is well known. But that our present science and technology grew directly out of the Judeo-Christian view of reality as it developed in the Middle Ages is still not widely recognized. Tracing this continuity is one of White's major themes, persuasively developed.The last chapter of the book looks ahead to one possible future by probing the psychological agonies that accompany times of rapid cultural change. Such periods of conceptual uncertainty breed mass irrationalities, a recurring symptom of which, historically, has been the public driving out of scapegoats and the hunting of "witches." The extent to which our society, changing largely under technological impulse, can avoid this reaction is itself uncertain. It has happened before in "civilized" times. As White notes, "There was a period in our own society when we needed witches and had them in enormous numbers. It began about the year 1300, ended somewhat after 1650, and is usually called the Renaissance."