Description
Book SynopsisA Companion to American Technology is a groundbreaking collection of original essays that analyze the hard-to-define phenomenon of technology in America.
- 22 original essays by expert scholars cover the most important features of American technology, including developments in automobiles, television, and computing
- Analyzes the ways in which technologies are organized, such as in the engineering profession, government, medicine and agriculture
- Includes discussions of how technologies interact with race, gender, class, and other organizing structures in American society
Trade Review"These essays serve the purpose of establishing a base of information for the reader to better understand the process of technology, how it is defined, and how it can be traced throughout the history of the nation ... An excellent collection."
Journal of Southern History "The very breadth of the subject matter and analytical techniques in these contributions is extremely impressive. A stimulating collection."
History
"Highly recommended."
Choice
Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors vii
Introduction 1
Carroll Pursell
Part I Beginnings
1 Technology in Colonial North America 9
Robert B. Gordon
2 The American Industrial Revolution 31
James C. Williams
Part II Sites Of Production
3 The Technology of Production 55
Carroll Pursell
4 Technology and Agriculture in Twentieth-Century America 69
Deborah Fitzgerald
5 House and Home 83
Gail Cooper
6 The City and Technology 97
Joel A. Tarr
7 Technology and the Environment 113
Betsy Mendelsohn
8 Government and Technology 132
Carroll Pursell
9 Medicine and Technology 156
James M. Edmonson
Part III Sites of Contest
10 The North American “Body–Machine” Complex 179
Chris Hables Gray
11 Gender and Technology 199
Rebecca Herzig
12 Labor and Technology 212
Arwen P. Mohun
Part IV Technological Systems
13 The Automotive Transportation System: Cars and Highways in Twentieth-Century America 233
Bruce E. Seely
14 Airplanes 255
Roger E. Bilstein
15 Technology in Space 275
Roger D. Launius
16 Nuclear Technology 298
M. Joshua Silverman
17 Television 321
Douglas Gomery
18 Computers and the Internet: Braiding Irony, Paradox, and Possibility 340
Jeffrey R. Yost
Part V Producing and Reading Technological Culture
19 The Profession of Engineering in America 363
Bruce Sinclair
20 Popular Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century 385
Molly W. Berger
21 Art and Technology 406
Henry Adams
22 Critics of Technology 429
David E. Nye
Index 453
