ABSTRACT
Lynn White’s thesis concerning the heavy medieval plough has a number of the same ingredients: an issue of dating, the correlating of synchronous technological and social events and an assertion of the impact of the combination. Three scholars, Lewis Mumford, White, Jr and Jean Gimpel, have received recognition and stature both for their interest in and contributions to understanding medieval technology. Lewis Mumford was a pioneer, renowned for having found a place for the history of technology within the issues of twentieth-century intellectual life quite generally. Jean Gimpel was a historian of the Middle Ages interested in both its social and technological sides. In the context of White’s contributions in Medieval Technology and Social Change a word might also be added about his method of research. The relief stems from the fact that without such giants in the history of technology the history of medieval technology would quite probably have been left in the dust and dusty volumes.
