Picture, if you can, a world without glass. There would be no microscopes or telescopes, no sciences of microbiology or astronomy. People with poor vision would grope in the shadows, and planes, cars, and even electricity probably wouldn't exist. Artists would draw without the benefits of three-dimensional perspective, and ships would still be steered by what stars navigators could see through the naked eye. In "Glass: A World History", Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin tell the fascinating story of how glass has revolutionized the way we see ourselves and the world around us. Starting ten thousand years ago with its invention in the Near East, Macfarlane and Martin trace the history of glass and its uses from the ancient civilizations of India, China and Rome through western Europe during the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, and finally up to the present day. The authors argue that glass played a key role not just in transforming humanity's relationship with the natural world, but also in the divergent courses of Eastern and Western civilizations. While all the societies that used glass first focused on its beauty in jewellery and other ornaments, and some later made it into bottles and other containers, only western Europeans further developed the use of glass for precise optics, mirrors and windows. These technological innovations in glass, in turn, provided the foundations for European domination of the world in the several centuries following the Scientific Revolution. Clear, compelling and quite provocative, "Glass" is an amazing biography of an equally amazing subject, a subject that as been central to every aspect of human history, from art and science to technology and medicine.

艾倫•麥剋法蘭（Alan Macfarlane, 1941— ）

英國曆史學傢、人類學傢，劍橋大學國王學院終身院士，英國皇傢曆史學會院士，皇傢人類學會院士，英國科學院歐洲科學院院士。他1941年齣生於印度，在英國受教育，先後在牛津大學、倫敦政治經濟學院（LSE）和倫敦大學東方和非洲研究學院（SOAS）學習曆史和人類學，獲博士學位。麥剋法蘭在喜馬拉雅山區(尼泊爾和阿薩姆)有30年田野經驗。他還是著名電視節目製作人，在著名的“第四頻道”、“世界起飛的那一天”係列節目擔任專傢顧問。

麥剋法蘭關注現代世界諸起源及特性之比較研究，研究對象覆蓋西歐、喜馬拉雅地區和日本等三大文化區域。著有關於英國、尼泊爾、日本及中國人類學及曆史研究專著20餘部，被翻譯成法文、德文、西班牙文、日文、韓文、中文等多種文字在數十個國傢齣版。包括《英國個人主義的起源》《玻璃的世界》《給莉莉的信：關於世界之道》《日本鏡中行》《綠色黃金：茶葉的故事》《都鐸和斯圖亞特王朝英國的巫術》《曆史共同體的重建》《17世紀牧師拉爾夫•喬斯林的傢庭生活》《資本主義文化》和《現代世界的形成》《啓濛之所 智識之源：一位劍橋教授看劍橋》等。