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Rating: 
Summary: An overview of the shaping of a technological world.
Review: After reading a positive recommendation in The Economist, I read this book twice and greatly enjoyed the rich tapestry of strands that Crosby weaves. With discerning eye and picking essential tendencies he explains how& why Europe surged ahead from the 11/12th century onward (with a nightmare pause in the 14th century) in economic and technological development, to dominate the world for an unprecedented period. He bases his story on many different elements that came to the fore in an increasingly complex and dynamic European society of the 12/13th century. I found his thesis of the increasing European mindset toward quantification altogether very convincing. I also liked how he points out the traces of these developments on our society today. Highly recommendend.
Rating:
Summary: An overview of the shaping of a technological world.
Review: Crosby does a fantastic job covering a vast change in the overall society changes from 1250-1600. For the amount of vast knowledge packed in you'd think the book would be 3,000 pages. He brings us an interesting approach to the actual birth and uprise of modern techonology, arts and literature as we know it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, well-written, and enlightening
Review: Crosby takes on a very difficult and complicated subject here and manages a book of remarkable clarity and balance. The book is lightly written and though the footnotes were a bit distracting (I'd have preferred they be set out in an appendix) it's a fast, friendly read. I would recommend it to readers with a wide range of interests from general world or medieval European history, to those interested in the roots of western business practices, music history and notation, physics, astronomy, mathematics . . . Bravo, Mr. Crosby!
Rating:
Summary: A quick and enjoyable read
Review: Let me start by saying that I try not to inflate my ratings like so many on amazon.com, so this is actually a very positive rating. Crosby presents no original research here, but he does do a marvelous job of pulling together the work of others to bolster his argument that it was the shift in Europeans viewing reality in quanitificational concepts rather than qualitative ones that laid the intellectual groundwork for their global expansion. Fortunately, in presenting the work of others Crosby has an eye equally attuned to the more entertaining moments in the shift to the age of quantification as to the more crucial. He is also a highly entertaining writer. The result is perhaps the easiest-to-read work of pre-modern history that I have encountered. Not heavy duty stuff, but an extraordinarily pleasant way to spend a few hours.
Rating: 
Summary: Necessary but Inefficient
Review: Professor Crosby has done a well written work on history of quantification and western society, but it's quite flawed on substance. Crosby believes that there is a special "mentalite" which has driven Europeans to their "amazing success of European imperialism." He provides many examples on the "distinct" European mentalite which were not quite unique. Among them are 1) Ptolemy's grid map system which he believes to be of European Orgin. However, the Chinese scientist, Zhang heng, created the map grid system in China during Han dynasty and it was used in both city planning and navigation. 2) European double bookkeeping which he believes to be vital in European history because of its emphasis on accuracy and part of this mentalite. However, advance bookkeeping methods were also evident in merchants of the Islamic Gun Powder Empires. In historic research, when one dedicates all his effort to find a particular trait in a culture, he will be bound to "find" it. As in Crosby's case, he tries to find this mentalite in Europe and he did find it. However, so can an Islamic, Chinese, Indian, scholar....if he looks hard enough.
Rating:
Summary: Necessary but Inefficient
Review: Professor Crosby has done a well written work on history of quantification and western society, but it's quite flawed on substance. Crosby believes that there is a special "mentalite" which has driven Europeans to their "amazing success of European imperialism." He provides many examples on the "distinct" European mentalite which were not quite unique. Among them are 1) Ptolemy's grid map system which he believes to be of European Orgin. However, the Chinese scientist, Zhang heng, created the map grid system in China during Han dynasty and it was used in both city planning and navigation. 2) European double bookkeeping which he believes to be vital in European history because of its emphasis on accuracy and part of this mentalite. However, advance bookkeeping methods were also evident in merchants of the Islamic Gun Powder Empires. In historic research, when one dedicates all his effort to find a particular trait in a culture, he will be bound to "find" it. As in Crosby's case, he tries to find this mentalite in Europe and he did find it. However, so can an Islamic, Chinese, Indian, scholar....if he looks hard enough.
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