The Broken Machine
Histories of Technology, Social Order, and the Self
$109.51
- Paperback
262 pages
- Release Date
19 May 2026
Summary
The Broken Machine explores the intertwined histories of breaking machines, social order, and the self in the modern Atlantic World. Edward Jones-Imhotep reveals how breakdowns are not the kinds of objects we imagine. More than just material failures or social disruptions, since the 18th century, breakdowns served as moments for defining a modern technological self and the core values of social order in Western democracies: what kinds of people belonged to it, what virtues they should possess…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262553346 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0262553341 |
| Author: | Edward Jones-Imhotep |
| Publisher: | MIT Press Ltd |
| Imprint: | MIT Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 262 |
| Release Date: | 19 May 2026 |
| Weight: | 369g |
| Dimensions: | 152mm x 229mm |
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Critics Review
ENDORSEMENTS
“Broken machines as engines of selves and social orders, plural and specific—this is technology studies at its daring and imaginative best.”
—Steven J. Jackson, Professor of Information Science and Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University
“Who knew that histories are written not by the relentless machine, but in its eloquent stutters? This book masterfully reveals how the jammed guillotine, the derailed train, and the misfired missile truly shape our world. Elegant, essential, and profoundly disruptive: a truly innovative insight on how technology actually happens.”
—Dagmar Schäfer, Director, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin; author of The Crafting of the 10,000 Things: Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-Century China
“This brilliant and relentless book takes apart the white innocence of the history of technology and the modern self. Jones-Imhotep masterfully poses alternative ways of technological being.”
—Tiago Saraiva, author of Fascist Pigs and The Orchard in the Ruins
Edward Jones-Imhotep
Edward Jones-Imhotep is a Professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto.
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