"Jacques EIlul is a French sociologist, a Catholic layman active in the ecumenical movement, a leader of
the French resistance in the war, and -- one is tempted to add, after reading his book -a great man. Certainly
he has written a magnificent book. ... The translation by John Wilkinson is excellent.
"With monumental calm and maddening thoroughness he goes through one human activity after another and shows
how it has been technicized -- rendered efficient -- and diminished in the process.... "
-- Paul Pickrel, Harper's
"The Technological Society is one of the most important books of the second half of the twentieth century.
In it, Jacques Ellul convincingly demonstrates that technology, which we continue to conceptualize as the servant
of man, will overthrow everything that prevents the internal logic of its development, including humanity itself
-- unless we take the necessary steps to move human society out of the environment that 'technique' is creating
to meet its own needs."
-- Robert Theobald, The Nation
"...The effect is a contained intellectual explosion, a heated recognition of a tragic complication that has
overtaken contemporary society."
-- Scott Buchanan, George Washington Law Review
Random House, Incorporated Web Site, April, 2000
Summary
Introduction by Robert K. Merton, translated by John Wilkinson. As insightful and wise today as it was when
originally published in 1954, Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society has become a classic in its field, laying
the groundwork for all other studies of technology and society that have followed. Ellul offers a penetrating
analysis of our technological civilization, showing how technology--which began innocuously enough as a servant
of humankind--threatens to overthrow humanity itself in its ongoing creation of an environment that meets its own
ends. No conversation about the dangers of technology and its unavoidable effects on society can begin without
a careful reading of this book.