Riya Dhami's Key Ideas from Science and Technology in World History
by James Edward McClellan, Harold Dorn

The book highlights scientific and technological contributions from non-Western civilizations: China, India, the Islamic world, and pre-Columbian America.

The West didn’t invent science—it became dominant by systematizing and institutionalizing it.

The idea that technology is simply applied science is a modern narrative. Historically, it was often the reverse—technology led, and science followed.

We often misunderstand the true relationship between theory and practice.

Ancient China pioneered innovations like printing, the compass, gunpowder, and papermaking long before they reached Europe.

Technological revolutions are not limited by geography they’re shaped by context and culture.

Scholars in the Islamic world preserved, translated, and expanded Greek, Indian, and Persian knowledgelaying the groundwork for Europe’s Scientific Revolution

Knowledge thrives in translation, tolerance, and trade.

The book ends with questions about digital technology, climate change, and sustainability—are we heading toward progress or peril?

The next chapter in this story is ours to write with responsibility.