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9780195046052

A Social History of American Technology

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780195046052

  • ISBN10:

    0195046056

  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 1997-01-30
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Summary

For over 250 years American technology has been regarded as a unique hallmark of American culture and an important factor in American prosperity. Despite this American history has rarely been told from the perspective of the history of technology. A Social History of American Technology fillsthis gap by surveying the history of American technology from the tools used by the earliest native inhabitants to the technological systems -- cars and computers, aircraft and antibiotics -- we are familiar with today. Cowan makes use of the most recent scholarship to explain how the uniquecharacteristics of American cultures and American geography have affected the technologies that have been invented, manufactured, and used throughout the years. She also focuses on the key individuals and ideas that have shaped important technological developments. The text explains how varioustechnologies have affected the ways in which Americans work, govern, cook, transport, communicate, maintain their health, and reproduce. Cowan demonstrates that technological change has always been closely related to social development, and explores the multiple, complex relationships that haveexisted between such diverse social agents as households and businesses, the scientific community and the defense establishment, artists and inventors. Divided into three sections -- colonial America, industrialization, the 20th century -- A Social History of American Technology is ideal for coursesin American social and economic history, as a correlated text for the American history survey, as well as for courses that focus on the history of American technology. It offers students the unique opportunity to learn not only how profoundly technological change has affected the American way oflife, but how profoundly the American way of life has affected technology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii
I IN THE BEGINNING 1(66)
A Social History of American Technology
2(3)
The Land, the Natives, and the Settlers
5(23)
The Land and the Native Inhabitants
6(4)
The European Settlers
10(6)
The Colonial Economy
16(6)
Colonial Economic Policy and Technological Change
22(3)
Conclusion: Quickening the Pace for Technological Change
25(2)
Notes
27(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
27(1)
Husbandry and Huswifery in the Colonies
28(17)
Types of Farms in the Colonial Period
29(2)
The Technological System of Colonial Agriculture
31(8)
Conclusion: The Myth of Self-Sufficiency
39(4)
Notes
43(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
44(1)
Colonial Artisans
45(22)
The Apprenticeship System and Labor Scarcity
46(4)
Printshops and Printers
50(4)
Mills, Millwrights, and Millers
54(3)
Iron Foundries and Iron Workers
57(6)
Conclusion: Reasons for the Slow Pace of Technological Change
63(2)
Notes
65(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
65(2)
II INDUSTRIALIZATION 67(154)
The Early Decades of Industrialization
69(24)
Oliver Evans, Steam Engines, and Machine Shops
73(3)
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
76(2)
The Armament Industry and the American System of Manufacture
78(4)
Samuel Slater and the Factory System
82(7)
Conclusion: The Unique Character of American Industrialization
89(2)
Notes
91(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
91(2)
Transportation Revolutions
93(26)
Transportation Difficulties
94(3)
Toll Roads and Entrepreneurs
97(2)
Canal Building and State Financing
99(6)
Steamboats: Steam Power and State Power
105(7)
Railroads: Completing a National Transportation System
112(5)
Notes
117(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
118(1)
Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Engineers
119(30)
The Patent System: The Public History of Invention
120(4)
Inventors: Changes between 1820 and 1920
124(6)
Entrepreneurs: Innovation and Diffusion
130(8)
Engineers: Changes between 1820 and 1920
138(9)
Notes
147(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
147(2)
Industrial Society and Technological Systems
149(24)
Industrialization, Dependency, and Technological Systems
150(1)
The Telegraph System
151(2)
The Railroad System
153(3)
The Petroleum System
156(3)
The Telephone System
159(3)
The Electric System
162(3)
The Character of Industrialized Society
165(6)
Conclusion: Industrialization and Technological Systems
171(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
171(2)
Daily Life and Mundane Work
173(28)
Farmers and Unexpected Outcomes
173(5)
Skilled and Deskilled Workers
178(9)
Unskilled Workers
187(6)
Housewives and House Servants
193(5)
Conclusion: Was Industrialization Good or Bad for Workers?
198(1)
Notes
199(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
199(2)
American Ideas about Technology
201(20)
Technology and Associated Ideas
203(2)
Precursers to Industrialization
205(3)
Technology and Romanticism
208(1)
Acceptance of Romanticism by Advocates of Industrialization
209(4)
Technology and Art
213(4)
Conclusion: The Cultural Meanings of Technology
217(1)
Notes
218(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
219(2)
III TWENTIETH-CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES 221(108)
Blessing or Curse?
222(2)
Automobiles and Automobility
224(25)
Who Invented the Automobile?
225(3)
Henry Ford and the Mass-Produced Automobile
228(2)
Alfred P. Sloan and the Mass-Marketed American Automobile
230(3)
Automobility and the Road System before 1945
233(3)
Automobility and the Road System after 1945
236(3)
The Unexpected Consequences of Automobility
239(8)
Conclusion: The Paradox of Automobility
247(1)
Notes
247(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
248(1)
Taxpayers, Generals, and Aviation
249(24)
The Early Days of Aircraft and the Aircraft Industry
250(6)
World War II: A Turning Point
256(4)
The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex
260(2)
Civilian Spin-offs and the Race into Space
262(7)
Conclusion: Costs and Benefits of Military Sponsorship
269(1)
Notes
270(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
271(2)
Communications Technologies and Social Control
273(28)
Wireless Telegraphy
273(2)
Wireless Telephony
275(4)
Government Regulation of Wireless Communication
279(4)
Wireless Broadcasting: Radio
283(6)
Television
289(3)
Electronic Components: The Vacuum Tube and the Transistor
292(2)
Computers
294(4)
Conclusion: The Ultimate Failure of Efforts to Control Electronic Communication
298(1)
Notes
299(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
300(1)
Biotechnology
301(28)
Science, Technology, and Technoscience
302(1)
Hybrid Corn
303(7)
Penicillin
310(8)
The Birth Control Pill
318(7)
Conclusion
325(1)
Note
326(1)
Suggestions for Further Reading
327(2)
Index 329

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