American Technological Sublime

by Nye, David E.

• ISBN13: 9780262640343
• ISBN10: 0262640341
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-02-28
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

Technology has long played a central role in the formation of Americans' sense of selfhood. From the first canal systems through the moon landing, Americans have, for better or worse, derived unity from the common feeling of awe inspired by large-scale applications of technological prowess. American Technological Sublimecontinues the exploration of the social construction of technology that David Nye began in his award-winning book Electrifying America.Here Nye examines the continuing appeal of the "technological sublime" (a term coined by Perry Miller) as a key to the nation's history, using as examples the natural sites, architectural forms, and technological achievements that ordinary people have valued intensely. American Technological Sublimeis a study of the politics of perception in industrial society. Arranged chronologically, it suggests that the sublime itself has a history - that sublime experiences are emotional configurations that emerge from new social and technological conditions, and that each new configuration to some extent undermines and displaces the older versions. After giving a short history of the sublime as an aesthetic category, Nye describes the reemergence and democratization of the concept in the early nineteenth century as an expression of the American sense of specialness. What has filled the American public with wonder, awe, even terror? David Nye selects the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the Erie Canal, the first transcontinental railroad, Eads Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, the major international expositions, the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909, the Empire State Building, and Boulder Dam. He then looks at the atom bomb tests and the Apollo mission as examples of the increasing ambivalence of the technological sublime in the postwar world. The festivities surrounding the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986 become a touchstone reflecting the transformation of the American experience of the sublime over two centuries. Nye concludes with a vision of the modern-day "consumer sublime" as manifested in the fantasy world of Las Vegas.

Author Biography

David E. Nye is Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute and the History of Science and Technology program at the University of Minnesota and Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. His other books published by the MIT Press include Electrifying America and American Technological Sublime. He was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal in 2005 and was knighted by the Queen of Denmark in 2013.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Sublime	p. 1
The American Sublime	p. 17
The Railroad: The Dynamic Sublime	p. 45
Bridges and Skyscrapers: The Geometrical Sublime	p. 77
The Factory: From the Pastoral Mill to the Industrial Sublime	p. 109
The Electrical Sublime: The Double of Technology	p. 143
The Electric Cityscape: The Unintended Sublime	p. 173
Synthesis: The 1939 New York World's Fair	p. 199
Atomic Bomb and Apollo XI: New Forms of the Dynamic Sublime	p. 225
Rededicating the Statue of Liberty	p. 257
The Consumer's Sublime	p. 281
Notes	p. 297
Bibliography	p. 343
Index	p. 355
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