Technics an Civilization written by Lewis Mumford in the 1930s (published in 1934) gives the history of technology and its interplay in shaping and being shaped by civilizations. He asserts that the development of modern technology, rather than springing up during the Industrial Revolution, has its roots in the Middle Ages. He argues it is the moral, the economic, and the political choices we make, not the machines we use that has produced a capitalist industrialized machine-oriented economy, whose imperfect fruits serve the majority so imperfectly.