Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology.

EDWARD TENNER 

The author of Why Things Bite Back considers how everyday inventions such as sandals, reclining chairs, and helmets affect how we use our bodies--how we sit, stand, walk, and communicate--and how those actions in turn affect our images of each other. Most historians focus on such devices themselves, rather than on how we develop techniques for using them. Tenner picks up the slack by explaining, for instance, how touch-typing followed the development of the typewriter keyboard and how different types of footwear affect a walker's gait. The author also explores unintended consequences of inventions. Rubber nipples on baby bottles were supposed to improve infant nutrition, but they might have done the opposite. Reclining chairs were originally intended to promote healthful relaxation for the overtaxed body, but they have become the symbol of the slovenly. This tome is rife with such examples that provide a unique perspective on tools we use everyday. Knopf, 2003, 314 p., b&w photos/illus., hardcover, $26.00.