This book is the author's history of the relationship between technology and society over the past 500 years reveals how technological innovations have shaped, and have been shaped by, the cultures in which they arose. Spanning the preindustrial past, the age of scientific, political, and industrial revolutions, as well as the more recent eras of imperialism, modernism, and global security, this work evaluates what the author, a historian, calls "the question of technology." He brings the text of the first edition up to date by examining how today's unsustainable energy systems, insecure information networks, and vulnerable global shipping have helped foster geopolitical risks and instability. An analysis of how technology and culture have influenced each other over five centuries, the book frames a history that illuminates modern day problems and prospects faced by our technology dependent world.