New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

David King Dunaway, "A Four-Eyed World: How Glasses Changed the Way We See" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

Feb 19, 2026

David King Dunaway, a professor and cultural historian of technology, discusses how eyeglasses transformed perception and society. He recounts living a week without glasses. Topics include medieval origins and religious resistance, rising myopia and prevention, stereotypes in media, fashion and stigma, and the future risks and promises of smart and augmented eyewear.

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ANECDOTE

Week Without Glasses

David King Dunaway removed his glasses for a week despite being highly nearsighted to understand life without them.
The experiment was hazardous but gave him firsthand empathy for people who lack corrective lenses.

INSIGHT

Glasses Emerged With Reading Culture

Lenses and magnifiers existed for millennia but eyeglasses as binocular devices emerged in 13th-century Italy among monks and scribes.
Early glasses spread with increased literacy and printing because reading demanded close vision.

INSIGHT

Church Resistance Shaped Early Attitudes

The medieval Catholic Church often resisted spectacles as altering God's design and threatening its authority over knowledge.
As printing and literacy spread, demand for reading glasses rose despite initial religious objections.

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Eyeglasses have become so commonplace we hardly think about them—unless we can’t find them. Yet glasses have been controversial throughout history. Roger Bacon pioneered using lenses to see and then spent a decade in a medieval prison for advocating that he could fix" God’s creations by improving our eyesight. Even today, people take off their glasses before having their picture taken, despite how necessary they are.

A Four-Eyed World: How Glasses Changed the Way We See (Bloomsbury, 2026) is the first book to investigate the experience of wearing glasses and contacts and their role in culture. Dr. David King Dunaway encourages readers to take a look at how they literally see the world through what they wear. He explores everything from the history of deficient eyesight and how glasses are made to portrayals of those who wear glasses in media, the stigma surrounding them, and the future of augmented and virtual reality glasses, highlighting how glasses have shaped, and continue to shape, who we are. Interwoven is Dr. Dunaway’s own experience of spending a week without his glasses, which he has used since childhood, to see the world around him and his newfound appreciation for his visual aids.

This is the story of how we see the world and how our ability to see things has evolved, ultimately asking: How have two cloudy, quarter-sized discs of crystal or glass originally riveted together become so essential to human existence? Shakespeare famously said eyes are windows to the soul, but what about people who see only by covering theirs with glasses? Readers will find out together through this fascinating and insightful cultural history of one of humanity’s greatest inventions.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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