Abstract: In the second half of the twentieth century， the history of western technology was turning to contextualism， evading the grand narrative tradition and highlighting delicate life scenes. However， it is now problematic to write a general history of technology in that a fragmented historical picture could meet the readers curiosity but fail to meet the demands of self-reflection. A comprehensive perspective should be provided to the general history so as to understand our own times. Since the whole is other than the sum of parts， the historical understanding of technological details implies some pre-understanding of the general context. The compilation of a general history of technology calls for reconsideration of the traditional historiography of technology. The general history of technology should concern “technology as the whole”， i.e.， the implicit wholeness or the technological environment. Besides， it stresses the emergence and evolution of technology. Shifting between new and old technologies， technology is most likely to stand out in the sense of technology. In sum， what the general history of technology cares about is not technological progress but human life， i.e.， the general history of technology is the living history of human beings.

Key words: history of technology, general history of technology, historiography