The development of the longbow in late medieval England and ‘technological determinism’

Traditional understandings of the development of the medieval English longbow and its role in the fourteenth-century ‘infantry revolution’ have recently been challenged by historians. This article responds to the revisionists, arguing based on archaeological, iconographic and textual evidence that the proper longbow was a weapon of extraordinary power, and was qualitatively different from – and more effective than – the shorter self-bows that were the norm in England (and western Europe generally) before the fourteenth century. It is further argued that acknowledging the importance of the weapon as a necessary element of any credible explanation of English military successes in the era of the Hundred Years War does not constitute ‘technological determinism’.     

SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A STRICTLY QUASI-CONCAVE CONTINUOUS UTILITY FUNCTION? OR,HOMO ECONOMICUS,PART TWO‘

Those who have stuck with modelling since those heady days have largely been able to do so, I suspect, by restricting the nature of the questions they ask. (Harvey 1989, 212)
One can imagine a world, perhaps, in which the growth of knowledge was interestingly philosophizable. But it doesn't seem to be our world. (McCloskey 1988, 245)     

Preliminary geology, paleontology and paleoecology of a sangoan site at Andalee, Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia

A rich stone tool assemblage is described of the Sangoan-type from a potentially semi-primary site, in association with a well-preserved fauna, and in paleo-environmental context. The site appears to be late Middle Pleistocene and contains a high proportion of small to medium-sized mammals (e.g. rodents, monkeys) deposited in low energy conditions. The environment is suggestive of a fringing woodland or riverine forest contained in a subarid climate.