The Machine in America

A Social History of Technology
2. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8018-8579-2
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 416 Seiten, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 553 g

2008 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

From the medieval farm implements used by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of society as well. Arguing that "the tools and processes we use are a part of our lives, not simply instruments of our purpose," historian Carroll Pursell analyzes technology's impact on the lives of women and men, on their work, politics, and social relationships—and how, in turn, people influence technological development.

Pursell shows how both the idea of progress and the mechanical means to harness the forces of nature developed and changed as they were brought from the Old World to the New. He describes the ways in which American industrial and agricultural technology began to take on a distinctive shape as it adapted and extended the technical base of the industrial revolution. He discusses the innovation of an American system of manufactures and the mechanization of agriculture; new systems of mining, lumbering, and farming, which helped conquer and define the West; and the technologies that shaped the rise of cities.

In the second edition of The Machine in America, Pursell brings this classic history up to date with a revised chapter on war technology and new discussions on information technology, globalization, and the environment.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pursell, Carroll

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technikgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Introduction
I. The Transit of Technology
1. The Tools Brought Over
2. Importing the Industrial Revolution
3. Improving Transportation
II. The Domestication of the Industrial Revolution
4. The Expansion of American Manufactures
5. The Mechanization of Farming
III. The Imprint of American Technology
6. Creating an Urban Environment
7. Westward the Course of Industry
8. Export, Exploitation, and Empire
IV. Technology and Hegemony
9. The Coming of Science and Systems
10. The Decade of Prosperity and Consumption
11. Depression: Study and Subsidy
12. Wars and the "American Century"
13. Challenge and Change in a Postmodern World
V. Globalization
14. Our (Un)Wired World
15. America's Global Reach
Notes
Further Reading
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Pursell, Carroll
Carroll Pursell is an adjunct professor of history at The Australian National University and professor emeritus of history at Case Western Reserve University. He is a former president of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) and the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC). He is the author of From Playgrounds to PlayStation: The Interaction of Technology and Play, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Carroll Pursell is an adjunct professor of history at The Australian National University and professor emeritus of history at Case Western Reserve University. He is a former president of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) and the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC). He is the author of From Playgrounds to PlayStation: The Interaction of Technology and Play, also published by Johns Hopkins.