A Companion to American Technology

Copyright © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

A Companion to American Technology

Editor(s): Carroll Pursell

Published Online: 1 APR 2008

Print ISBN: 9780631228448

Online ISBN: 9780470696088

DOI: 10.1002/9780470696088

About this Book

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About The Product

A 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

Table of contents

    1. You have free access to this content
      Frontmatter (pages i–X)

    1. Introduction (pages 1–5)

      Carroll Pursell

  3. Part I: Beginnings

    1. Chapter 1

      Technology in Colonial North America (pages 9–30)

      Robert B. Gordon

    2. Chapter 2

      The American Industrial Revolution (pages 31–51)

      James C. Williams

  4. Part II: Sites of Production

    1. Chapter 3

      The Technology of Production (pages 55–68)

      Carroll Pursell

    2. Chapter 4

      Technology and Agriculture in Twentieth-Century America (pages 69–82)

      Deborah Fitzgerald

    3. Chapter 5

      House and Home (pages 83–96)

      Gail Cooper

    4. Chapter 6

      The City and Technology (pages 97–112)

      Joel A. Tarr

    5. Chapter 7

      Technology and the Environment (pages 113–131)

      Betsy Mendelsohn

    6. Chapter 8

      Government and Technology (pages 132–155)

      Carroll Pursell

    7. Chapter 9

      Medicine and Technology (pages 156–176)

      James M. Edmonson

  5. Part III: Sites of Contest

    1. Chapter 10

      The North American “Body‒Machine” Complex (pages 179–198)

      Chris Hables Gray

    2. Chapter 11

      Gender and Technology (pages 199–211)

      Rebecca Herzig

    3. Chapter 12

      Labor and Technology (pages 212–230)

      Arwen P. Mohun

  6. Part IV: Technological Systems

    1. Chapter 13

      The Automotive Transportation System: Cars and Highways in Twentieth-Century America (pages 233–254)

      Bruce E. Seely

    2. Chapter 14

      Airplanes (pages 255–274)

      Roger E. Bilstein

    3. Chapter 15

      Technology in Space (pages 275–297)

      Roger D. Launius

    4. Chapter 16

      Nuclear Technology (pages 298–320)

      M. Joshua Silverman

    5. Chapter 17

      Television (pages 321–339)

      Douglas Gomery

    6. Chapter 18

      Computers and the Internet: Braiding Irony, Paradox, and Possibility (pages 340–360)

      Jeffrey R. Yost

  7. Part V: Producing and Reading Technological Culture

    1. Chapter 19

      The Profession of Engineering in America (pages 363–384)

      Bruce Sinclair

    2. Chapter 20

      Popular Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century (pages 385–405)

      Molly W. Berger

    3. Chapter 21

      Art and Technology (pages 406–428)

      Henry Adams

    4. Chapter 22

      Critics of Technology (pages 429–452)

      David E. Nye

    1. You have free access to this content
      Index (pages 453–468)

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