1. Rethinking American History
With a Technological Focus
Michael E. Dobe
Rutgers University
New Brunswick History Department
Originally Presented April 1998
Last Updated April 2013
2. Questions to Address
•History and Historiography: What Can The
History of Technology Teach Us About
American History?
•Lessons Learned: What Can American
History Teach Us About Technology Today?
•The State of Pedagogy and the Net: Can We
Use Internet Technology to Teach History
Now, or Is It Too Soon?
3. Sources Consulted:
Textbooks
•(MA) Making America, A History of the United
States. Berkin, Miller, Cherney, and Gormly.
Houghton Mifflin, 1995.
•(PN) A People and a Nation (4th Edition).
Norton, Katzman, Escott, Chudacoff, Paterson,
and Tuttle. Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
•(EV) The Enduring Vision, A History of the
American People (2nd Edition). Boyer, Clark,
Kett, Salisbury, Sitkoff and Woloch. D.C. Heath
and Company, 1993.
4. Sources: Monographs,
Articles and WWW Sources
•M.A. Reading List
•Exemplary Syllabi:
o H-Net Interactive Teaching Resources
o SHOT Syllabi in the History of Technology
o P. Thomas Carroll's Syllabus
“History of American Technology” (Fall 1996 at RPI)
5. Syllabi
•Sarah Pritchard’s “Technology, Nature,
and Society in the U.S.” (Link)
•Naomi Lamoreaux’s “History of American
Enterprise” (Link)
•David A. Mindell and Charles Leiserson’s
“The Structure of Engineering
Revolutions” (Link)
•Robert O. Keel’s “Society and
Technology” (Link)
6. More Syllabi
•David Nye’s Seminar “Time, Work,
and Leisure” (Link)
•Pap Ndiaye’s “Politicians,
Businessmen and Engineers in 20th
Century America” (Link)
7. Syllabi in Technology and
Culture by Gabrielle Hecht
Stanford University History of
Science and Philosophy Program
•http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/
•Gabriela Hecht’s Syllabi:
o “Technology, Work and Culture in Comparative
Perspective” (Link)
o “Technology and Society” (Link)
o “Technology and Culture in the 20th Century”
(Link)
8. Historiography:
The Role of Interpretation
•John Staudenmaier’s Technology's
Storytellers
•Merritt Roe Smith and Leo Marx’s edited
collection Does Technology Drive History?
•Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes and Trevor
Pinch’s edited collection The Social
Construction of Technological Systems
9. Technology’s Storytellers
•Role of SHOT and Technology and
Culture (See the SHOT Website)
•Internalist vs. Externalist Accounts
•Relationship Between Science and
Technology
•“Mystery of Creativity”
•Whig History vs. Study of Cultural
Ambience: Race, Class and Gender
10. Does Technology Drive
History?
•Technological Determinism
•The Problematic Nature of “Progress”
•From Thomas Jefferson to Tench Coxe:
Enlightenment Roots
•19th Century American Art: Celebratory
Images of Technology
•Marketing of Technology
11. Social Construction of
Technological Systems
•Roots in History of Science
•Nature of Technological Knowledge
•Is there such thing as a bicycle?
•Thomas P. Hughes on the Evolution of Large Technological
Systems:
o Patterns of Evolution
o Invention
o Development
o Innovation
o Technology Transfer
o Technological Style
o Growth, Competition, and Consolidation
o Momentum
12. European Background For
Colonial Technologies
•Arnold Pacey’s The Maze of
Ingenuity
•Jean Gimpel’s The Medieval
Machine
13. The Maze of Ingenuity
•11th/12th Century Architecture:
Cathedral-Making
•13th/14th Century Inventions:
Clocks and Textile Machines
•15th and 16th Century Mathematics
•17th Century Scientific Revolution
and the “Practical Arts”
14. The Medieval Machine
•The Technological Role of
Monasteries (ex. Cistercians)
•Harnessing Energy: Wind Mills
•Agricultural Revolution
•The Environment
•Architecture, Mechanical Clocks,
and Scientific Inquiry
15. Colonial Technologies, 1492-
1770
Standard Periodization (MA)
•Creation of a "New" World, 1492-1600
•European Colonization of North America
and Formation of American Society, 1600-
1720
•Growth of English Colonies in the
Eighteenth Century, 1720-1770
16. Web Resources: 1492-1770
P. Thomas Carroll
•Technology in the American “Wilderness”
Steven Lubar’s Courses
•History and Sociology of Science (Link)
•Material Culture of Technology (Link)
National Museum of American History
•Engines of Change Exhibit (Link)
17. Relevant Readings: 1492-1770
•Patrick Malone’s Skulking Way of War
•Steven Innes’ Labor in a New Land
•Judith McGaw’s Edited Collection Early
American Technology: Doing and Making
Things from the Colonial Era through 1850
•Other Works on Labor History in Colonial
America and Indian Encounters ...
18. American Revolution and
Early Republic, 1763-1800
Standard Periodization (PN)
•Severing the Bonds of Empire, 1754-1774
•The American Revolution, 1775-1783
•Forging a National Republic, 1776-1789
•Politics and Society in the Early Republic,
1789-1800
19. Web Resources: 1763-1800
P. Thomas Carroll
•Early Engineers, "Improvements" and
Technology Transfers
•Review of Early American
Technology in Reviews in American
History
20. Relevant Readings: 1763-1800
•John F Kasson’s “The Emergence of
Republican Technology” in Civilizing the
Machine: Technology and Republican
Values in America, 1776-1900 (Chapters 1
and 2)
•Merritt Roe Smith’s “Regional Interests and
Military Needs” in Harpers Ferry Armory and
the New Technology (Chapter 1)
21. More Relevant Readings:
1763-1800
•Brooke Hindle’s “The Machine in the New
Nation” in Emulation and Invention (Chapter
1)
•Brooke Hindle and Steven Lubar’s “The
Industrial Revolution and Technological
Change”, “The United States: Land of
Opportunities” and “The Promise of
Technology” in Engines of Change
(Chapters 1-3)
22. Emergence of Republican
Technology
•Focus on Ideology of Republicanism
•Emphasis on Republican Virtue
•Enlightenment Roots/The Agrarian
Republic
•Citizen-Engineers of the Revolution
•Changing Role of Domestic
Manufactures
23. Regional Interests and
Military Needs
•Harper’s Ferry as Jefferson’s “Middle
Landscape”
•Suitability of Harper’s Ferry Site
o Engineering Considerations
o Local Talent
o Proximity to Other Resources
•Personal Role of George Washington
•Slow Start For Building the Armory Canal
24. The Machine in the New
Nation
•American Revolution and Industrial Revolution
•The “Hands-On” Colonial Experience with
Technology: Seed Drills, Turpentine and
Whiskey Stills, Grist and Saw Mills, and Clocks
•Technological Enthusiasm
•Emulation, Ben Franklin and the American
System of Apprenticeship
•Early Efforts at Encouraging Manufactures
25. Engines of Change
•Resources in Land, Wood, and
People
•Agriculture and “Farmer Artisans”:
Gristmills, Sawmills, Lathes, Rifles
and Clocks
•Technology Transfer From England:
The Case of Samuel Slater’s Textile
Mills
26. The American Middle Period,
1800-1865
Standard Periodization (MA)
•Renewing Independence, 1805-1814
•The Rise of a New Nation, 1815-1819
•Dynamic Growth and Its Consequences, 1820-1827
•Politics and Change in Jackson's America, 1828-1840
•Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny, 1841-
1849
•Conflict and Shattered Union, 1850-1860
•A Violent Solution: Civil War, 1861-1865
27. Special Areas of Focus in
Textbook Accounts
From A People and a Nation
•Railroads, Markets, and Mills: The
North and the West, 1800-1860
From Making America
•The Transportation Revolution
•The Mechanization of Northern
Society
28. Railroads, Markets, and Mills:
The North and the West
•Transportation and Regionalization
•The Market Economy
•Government Promotes Economic Growth
•The Rise of Manufacturing and Commerce
•Workers and the Workplace
•How Do Historians Know?
•Commercial Farming
•Settling and Conquering the West
30. The Mechanization of
Northern Society
•The Birth of the Factory System
•Toward a New Labor System
•Individual Choices: Susan Miller
•Social Life for a Genteel Class
•Life and Culture Among the New
Middle Class
31. Web Resources: 1800-1865
P. Thomas Carroll
•Industrialization and the American System of
Manufacturing
•Republican Technology and the Factory Town
32. Relevant Readings: 1800-1865
•Merritt Roe Smith’s Harpers Ferry Armory and
the New Technology
•John Kasson’s “The Factory as Republican
Community,” “Technology and Imaginative
Freedom” and “The Aesthetics of Machinery” in
Civilizing the Machine (Chapters 3 and 4)
•Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s “The Invention of
Housework” in More Work for Mother (Chapter
3)
33. More Relevant Readings:
1800-1865
•David Hounshell’s “The American System in the
Antebellum Period” and “The Sewing Machine
and the American System of Manufactures” in
From the American System to Mass Production
(Chap. 1 and 2)
•Brooke Hindle’s Emulation and Invention
•Brooke Hindle and Steven Lubar’s Engines of
Change
•Anthony Wallace’s Rockdale
•Judith A. McGaw’s Most Wonderful Machine
34. Harper’s Ferry Armory and the
New Technology
•Pennsylvania Craftsmanship: Producing Locks,
Stocks and Barrels
•Harper’s Ferry’s Seclusion and Local Culture
•Competition Between Harper’s Ferry and
Springfield
•John H. Hall, the “American System” and the
persistence of traditional craft production
•Roots of the Machine Tools Industry?
35. The Factory as Republican
Community
•Social Control and Republican Virtue
•Need to Avoid England’s “Satanic Mills”
and Proletariat
•The Case of Lowell’s Mills
o The Mill as “Total Institution”
o Special People for Special Jobs: Unmarried
Women in the Mills
o Factory Discipline and Dissent
o Irish in the 40s and 50s
36. Housework and
Industrialization
•“Work Process” and “Technological
System”
•Emphasis on Consumption: Homemade
Goods Replaced by Manufactured Goods
•Emphasis on Production: Irony in Labor-
Saving Devices
•History of Daily Bread: Transition From
Meal to Flour
•Changes in Gender Roles and Technology
37. The American System of
Manufactures
•The Role of Arms Manufacture and the Armory
System -- Special Purpose Machine Tools Used
Sequentially to Produce Interchangeable Parts
•Gribeauval and The Enlightened Military Mind
•Eli Whitney as Publicist for Interchangeability and
Mechanization
•Springfield Armory’s Transition 1794-1815 From
Craft to Industrial Production
•Use of Inspection Gauges to Insure Uniformity
•Machine Tools and “Interchangeable” Parts and
Colt’s Pistols
•British Admiration of American Methods
38. Emulation and Invention
•Central Role of Images as Evidence
•Apprenticeship: How the American
Environment Encouraged Inventiveness
Through Emulation
•Spatial Thinking and The Steamboat
•Samuel Morse Images and the Telegraph
•Fine Arts and the Mechanical Arts
39. Engines of Change
•Inventions and Patents
Cotton Gin, Steam Boat, Telegraph
•Farm Machinery
Plows, Threshers, Reapers, Querns
•Mining of Coal and Iron
•Transportation by Stage Coach and Boat
•Transportation by Railroad and the Rise of
Railroad Management
•Machine Shops and Textile Mills
•The “American System”
40. Rockdale: A Case Study In
Early Industrialization
•Industrialists and Inventors
•Machines, Operatives and
Fabrics
•Role of Women
•Evangelical Christianity and
Christian Industrialism
41. Response to Industrialization,
1865-1900
Standard Topical Organization (MA)
•Reconstruction: High Hopes and Broken Dreams, 1865-
1877
• Survival of the Fittest: Entrepreneurs and Workers in
Industrial America, 1865-1900
• Conflict and Change in the West, 1865-1902
• The New Social Patterns of Urban and Industrial America,
1865-1917
• Political Stalemate and Political Upheaval, 1868-1900
• Becoming a World Power: America and World Affairs, 1865-
1913
42. Special Areas of Focus in
Textbook Accounts
•The Machine Age, 1877-1920 (PN)
•Foundation for Industrialization (MA)
•Railroads and Economic Growth (MA)
•Entrepreneurs and Industrial Transformation (MA)
•Railroads, Mining, and Agribusiness (MA)
•The Vitality and Turmoil of Urban Life, 1877-1920
(PN)
•The New Urban Environment (MA)
•Agricultural Distress and Political Upheaval (MA)
43. The Machine Age, 1877-1920
(PN)
•Technology and the Triumph of Industrialization
•Mechanization and the Changing Status of Labor
•The Union Movement
•Standards of Living
•The Quest for Convenience
•The Transformation of Mass Consumption
•The Corporate Consolidation Movement
•The Gospel of Wealth and Its Critics
•How Do Historians Know?
44. Foundation for
Industrialization (MA)
•Resources, Skills and Capital
•The Transformation of Agriculture
•The Impact of War and New
Government Policies
45. Railroads and Economic
Growth (MA)
•Railroad Expansion
•Railroads: Defining Big Business
•Investment Banking and
"Morganization"
•Chicago: Railroad Metropolis
46. Entrepreneurs and Industrial
Transformation (MA)
•Andrew Carnegie and the Age of
Steel
•Standard Oil: Model For Monopoly
•Technology and Economic Change
•Selling to the Nation
•Economic Concentration and the
Merger Movement
47. Railroads, Mining, and
Agribusiness (MA)
•Western Railroads
•Western Mining
•The Birth of Western Agribusiness
•Western Metropolis: San Francisco
•Water Wars
48. The Vitality and Turmoil of
Urban Life, 1877-1920 (PN)
•Transportation and Industrial
Growth in the Modern City
•Urban Professionals: Engineers
and Social Workers
49. The New Urban Environment
(MA)
•Surging Urban Growth
•New Cities of Skyscrapers and
Streetcars
•The New Urban Geography
•Building an Urban Infrastructure
50. Agricultural Distress and
Political Upheaval (MA)
•The Farmers' Complaints
•Grangers, Greenbackers and
Silverites
•Birth of the People's Party
•The Elections of 1890 and 1892
51. Web Resources: 1865-1900
P. Thomas Carroll
•Machines to Sew, Machines to Reap: The
Diffusion of "Machinofacture"
•Improvements Revisited: The New Urban
Technology
•Invention, Research, Inventor-
Entrepreneurs: The Age of Heroic
Invention
•The Corporation as Inventor
52. Relevant Readings: 1865-1900
•Thomas P. Hughes’ Networks of Power
•David Hounshell’s “Mass Production in the
Woodworking Industries”, “”The McCormick
Reaper Works” and “The Bicycle Industry” in
From the American System to Mass Production
(Chapters 3-5)
•Siegfried Giedeon’s “The Constituent Furniture
of the 19th Century” and “Mechanization and
Death: Meat” in Mechanization Takes Command
53. More Relevant Readings:
1865-1900
•John Kasson’s “Technology and Utopia” in
Civilizing the Machine (Chapter 5)
•Nathan Rosenberg’s “Marx as a Student of
Technology” in Inside the Black Box
54. Networks of Power
•1880-1920 Evolution of Regional
Power Systems in the US, England
and Germany
•“Primacy of Politics” in London
•“Coherent Political Economy” in
Berlin
•“Dominance of Technology” in
Chicago
55. Sewing Machines, Reapers
and Bicycles
•Role of Marketing and Advertising at Singer
and McCormick
•Primacy of Market Considerations for
Sewing Machines and Reapers
•“European Method of Production” and Top
of the Price Scale
•Bicycle Industry’s Transitional Role
•Focus on Production (Manufacturing
System) vs. Consumption (Marketing)
56. Material Culture: Furniture
and Meat Processing
•The Mechanization of Comfort, Furniture for an
“Informal Posture”
•Barber Chair and Reclining Chairs
•Railroad Furniture as a Reflection of Democratic
Values
•Slaughterhouse Mechanization as “Mechanical
Disassembly”
o Mass Production of Animals
o Refrigeration Cars
o Mechanical Hog Scraping
57. Karl Marx and Technology
•An Economist Looking Inside the “Black Box” of
Technology
•Was Marx a Technological Determinist? What Exactly is
“Dialectical Materialism”?
•Marx Points to Dialectical Relationship Between
Economic and Technical Developments
o Early Capitalism: Expanding Markets Interact With
Technology of Navigation in Colonization
o Later Capitalism: Capital Goods Industries Benefit From
Accumulation of Capital, Make Industrialization and Factory
System Possible … hence technologies move control out of
the workers’ hands.
58. Twentieth Century America,
1900-1945
Standard Periodization (MA)
•The Progressive Era, 1900-1917
•America and the World, 1913-1920
•The 1920s, 1920-1928
•From Good Times to Hard Times, 1920-1932
•The New Deal, 1932-1940
•America's Rise to World Leadership, 1933-1945
59. Twentieth Century America,
1945-Present
Standard Periodization
•Truman and Cold War America, 1945-1952
•Quest for Consensus, 1952-1960
•Great Promises, Bitter Disappointments, 1960-1968
•America Under Stress, 1960-1975
•Facing Limits, 1974-1986
•Making New Choices, 1986-1994
60. Special Areas of Focus in
Textbook Accounts
From Making America
•Prosperity Decade (1920s)
•The Best of Times (1950s)
From A People and a Nation
•American Society During the Postwar
Boom, 1945-1970
61. Prosperity Decade (1920s)
•The Economics of Prosperity
•Targeting Consumers
•The Automobile: Driving the Economy
•Changes in Banking and Business
•"Get Rich Quick" -- The Speculative Mania
•Agriculture: Depression in the Midst of
Prosperity
62. Society During the Postwar
Boom, 1945-1970
•The Postwar Booms: Business and Babies
•The Growth of the Suburbs
•How do Historians Know?
•Ideals of Motherhood and the Family
•The Affluent Society
•The Other America
•Middle-Class America at Play
63. The Best of Times (1950s)
•Suburban and Consumer Culture
•Family Culture
•Another View of Suburbia
•The Trouble With Kids
65. Web Resources: 1900-Today
P. Thomas Carroll
•War, Technological Momentum, Systems,
Giantism, and Progress
•Modern Workers at Work, at Home, on the
Road. I: Gender and Consumerism
•Modern Workers at Work, at Home, on the
Road. II: The Second World War and the
Postwar Prosperity
•Technological Alternatives and the Control
of Technology
66. Web Resources for the History of
the Cold War: David Hounshell
Carnegie Mellon University
Program in Cold War Science and
Technology Studies
http://www.hss.cmu.edu/HTML/departments/history/coldwar/
Example Materials
•The Cold War and Beyond (Link)
•The Rise of Industrial Research and Development
(Link)
•Guide to Cold War Web Sites
67. Relevant Reading: 1900-Today
•David Hounshell’s “The Ford Motor
Company & The Rise of Mass Production in
America” “The Limits of Fordism” and “The
Ethos of Mass Production” From the
American System to Mass Production
(Chapters 6, 7 and 8)
•Stuart Leslie’s Boss Kettering
•Bruce E. Seeley’s Building the American
Highway System
68. More Relevant Readings:
1900-Today
•Claude S. Fischer’s America Calling
•David Nye’s Electrifying America
•Roslyn L. Feldberg and Evelyn Nakano
Glenn’s “Technology and Work Degredation”
in Machina ex dea
•Ruth Oldenziel’s "Boys and Their Toys” in
Technology and Culture (January 1997)
•Donald MacKenzie’s Inventing Accuracy
•Margaret Graham’s RCA and the Videodisc
69. Henry Ford and Mass
Production
•The Model T: Ford’s Car “For the Masses” as the
Fulfillment of the American System of Manufacture
•Ford’s Assembly Line
o Single-Purpose Machine that Create Interchangeable Parts
o Conveyor Belts
o Workers Dedicated to “Feeding the Machines”
•Labor Problems and the 5 Dollar Day
•Limits of Ford’s Manufacturing System
o Maximum Production at Minimum Cost Fails to Meet Need
For Variety
o The GM Challenge “Flexible Mass Production”
o Move from Model T to Model A
70. Boss Kettering
Individualism, Invention, and
Corporate Culture
Inventions in the Early Years
•Electric Cash Register at National Cash Register (NCR)
and Self-Starting Engine at Delco
•Focus on the Market, Not the Engineers
Head of Research At GM
•Leadership in R & D in Corporate America
•Ex. Rubber vs. Freon (Focusing the Engineers)
71. Building the American
Highway System
•Role of Expert Knowledge in a Democratic Society
•Highway Building and Progressivism
•Logan Page, The “Apolitical Engineer”
•The Associative State in the 1920s and Early 1930s
o BPR under Thomas MacDonald
o State Agencies Look to Federal Government (BPR) for
Advice, Engineering Studies of Materials, etc.
o Cooperative Effort With State Highway Associations
•Politics to The Forefront: New Deal, WWII and Post-
War America
72. Social History of the
Telephone
•Inquiry into the Role of Telephone in
“Modernity”, Social and Personal Consequences
of Telephone Use
•Role of Government and Business
•Bell’s Challenge: Marketing the Telephone For
Business, Security and to End Isolation
•The Users: Subscription and Usage Patterns
•Use of the Telephone For Sociability --
Adaptation to Traditional Patterns of Behavior
73. The Culture of Electricity
Evidence of Electricity’s Impact: Photography,
Paintings, Novels, Newspapers
Electrical Lighting
•The Great White Way and Artistic Portrayals of Electric
Lighting
•Transforms Conception of the City
Streetcars
•Private vs. Public Control of Electrical Industry
•Fosters Advertising, Department Stores and Amusement
Parks
Visions of the Future
74. Technology and Masculinity:
Boys and Their Toys
•Is the Body By Fisher?
•Masculinity: Fisher Boys as Role Models
•Model Makers as Future Auto Body
Engineers
•The Ironies of Rugged Individualism: The
Role of the Family in Fisher Competitions
•Gender History vs. Women’s History
75. Nuclear Guidance Systems
•ICBMs and Inertial Guidance Systems
•Political Stakes of Technical Decisions:
MAD vs. Counterforce
•Disaggregation on “Policy”: Government,
Military, and Contractors
•Presenting Technology to the Non-
Technical
•Research on Classified Projects
•US vs. Soviet Process
•The Black Box
76. Videodiscs
•What is a “Failed” Technology?
•Role of Leaders in Corporations: David
Sarnoff and RCA
•Research in the Corporate Setting: R&D
Management and Corporate Spin-offs
•Margaret Graham’s Consulting Firm: The
Winthrop Group
77. American History
•Periodization -- May Be Necessary to Reperiodize U.S. History
With Divides at 1830 and 1917 (Age of Production/Age of
Consumption)
•Agency -- Who are History’s Actors? Craftsmen, Laborers,
Inventors, Promoters, Marketers, Consumers and Users!
•Themes -- Relationship Between Science and Technology is a
Recurring Theme in American History and Not Unrelated to
Ideology (Kasson)
•What is the role of experts in a democracy? (Seeley and
MacKenzie)
•Interest in Computing Contextualized? Why Did the Internet
Happen in the United States???? Role of Science-Based
Research? “Hans-on” experience, Hacking?
78. Historiography
•Focus on Material Culture Changes Our
Understanding of the Debate on
Contextualization (Hindle and Lubar)
•Gender and Technology (Cowan)
•Overcoming the Presentist Trap -- Good
Questions Survive the Passing of Present
Debates (MacKenzie)
79. Technology in Today’s World
•Interdisciplinary Nature of the History of
Technology -- Open Dialogue
•Ability to See the “Long View”
o To Understand a Technology You Must Understand its
Societal Context (Bijker and Pinch)
o Leavening Effect: Technologies Do Not Always
“Revolutionize” the Way People Live -- Continuities vs.
Discontinuities (Seeley)
o Political Culture Constrains Technology Transfer (Hughes)
o Technological Inventiveness May Not Be So Far Removed
From the Humanistic Disciplines (Hindle)
•Technology is Everywhere in Modern Life
80. The State of The Net
•Some Existing Resources Include:
o Syllabi
o On-Line Book Ordering (Amazon.com)
o Book Reviews (H-Net)
o Journal Articles On-Line (T&C)
o Primary Source Materials (OTA Records)
•Web Resources Provide Initial Examples, More
People Need to Adopt Medium
•Putting Course Materials On-Line is a Service, Not
Only to Your Students, But to Your Colleagues
Everywhere (Thomas Carroll)
81. Questions?
•Thanks to My Advisors: Dr. Robert A.
Rosenberg (rarosenb@rci.rutgers.edu) and
Dr. Paul Israel (pisrael@rci.rutgers.edu) of
the Thomas Edison Papers For Their
Generosity With Their Time and Knowledge
•All mistakes in this presentation are
mine :-) I can be contacted at
mdobe@clioweb.net with questions or
comments
Editor's Notes
(Executive Summary in First 10 Slides) Originally Presented In Completion of Requirements for the M.A. Degree in History (April 1998 Oral Exam) Rutgers University, New Brunswick History Department
Authors@Google: Eric Ries "The Lean Startup” Talks About Taylor and Taylorism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEvKo90qBns&t=710 Image of Nicholas Carr, Author of IT Doesn’t Matter. Periodization -- May Be Necessary to Reperiodize U.S. History With Divides at 1830 and 1917 (Age of Production/Age of Consumption) Agency -- Who are History’s Actors? Craftsmen, Laborers, Inventors, Promoters, Marketers, Consumers and Users! Themes -- Relationship Between Science and Technology is a Recurring Theme in American History and Not Unrelated to Ideology (Kasson) What is the role of experts in a democracy? (Seeley and MacKenzie) Interest in Computing Contextualized? Why Did the Internet Happen in the United States???? Role of Science-Based Research? “ Hands-on ” experience, Hacking?
What Can The History of Technology Teach Us About American History? Can We Use Internet Technology to Teach History Now, or Is It Too Soon? What Can American History Teach Us About Technology Today?
Click on the Image to go to site.
From Thomas Jefferson to Tench Coxe: Enlightenment Roots 19th Century American Art: Celebratory Images of Technology Avoiding Technological Determinism by Leaving Room of a History of Failure (From Jackson Lears to Current Focus on Entrepreneurship and Lean Startups) Image at the Right is “Men of Progress” Men of Progress, 1862, Oil on canvas by Christian Schussele In 1857, the inventor of a coal-burning stove, Jordan Mott, commissioned Christian Schussele to paint a group portrait of eighteen American scientists and inventors who "had altered the course of contemporary civilization." As with Schussele's celebration of American letters, Washington Irving . . . at Sunnyside, the group portrait did not mark an actual occasion but was designed to honor the achievements of American industry. The artist sketched study portraits of each of his subjects before putting them all into his final, formal composition. Men of Progress is a remarkable document of the growth of the American economy by the 1850s as it celebrates the inventions and processes of manufacturing pioneered by men such as Cyrus McCormick, Charles Goodyear, Samuel Colt, Samuel Morse, Elias Howe, and fourteen others. William Thomas Green Morton, James Bogardus, Samuel Colt, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Joseph Saxton, Charles Goodyear, Peter Cooper, Jordan Lawrence Mott, Joseph Henry, Eliphalet Nott, John Ericsson, Frederick Ellsworth Sickels, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, Henry Burden, Richard March Hoe, Erastus Brigham Bigelow, Isaiah Jennings, Thomas Blanchard, Elias Howe npgportraits.si.edu/eMuseumNPG/code/emuseum.asp?rawsearch...
(See the SHOT Website)
Interdisciplinary Nature of the History of Technology -- Open Dialogue Ability to See the “Long View” To Understand a Technology You Must Understand its Societal Context (Bijker and Pinch) Leavening Effect: Technologies Do Not Always “Revolutionize” the Way People Live -- Continuities vs. Discontinuities (Seeley) Political Culture Constrains Technology Transfer (Hughes) Technological Inventiveness May Not Be So Far Removed From the Humanistic Disciplines (Hindle) Ubiquity of Technology in Modern Life Image from Media:Scape Room IHC (Spring 2013)
Standard Periodization (MA)
Standard Periodization (PN)
Suitability of Harper’s Ferry Site: Engineering Considerations, Local Talent, Proximity to Other Resources
The “Hands-On” Colonial Experience with Technology: Seed Drills, Turpentine and Whiskey Stills, Grist and Saw Mills, and Clocks Emulation, Ben Franklin and the American System of Apprenticeship
Standard Periodization (MA)
Areas of emphasis from A People and A Nation.
Areas of emphasis from Making America.
Areas of emphasis from Making America.
Social Control and Republican Virtue/Need to Avoid England’s “Satanic Mills” and Proletariat
The Role of Arms Manufacture and the Armory System -- Special Purpose Machine Tools Used Sequentially to Produce Interchangeable Parts
Apprenticeship: How the American Environment Encouraged Inventiveness Through Emulation
Inventions and Patents: Cotton Gin, Steam Boat, Telegraph
Standard Topical Organization (MA)
From a People and a Nation
From a People and a Nation and Making America. People and a Nation takes a broader look at the period, Making of America gets into more detail.
1880-1920 Evolution of Regional Power Systems in the US, England and Germany
The Mechanization of Comfort, Furniture for an “Informal Posture” Slaughterhouse Mechanization as “Mechanical Disassembly”: Mass Production of Animals, Refrigeration Cars, Mechanical Hog Scraping
Marx Points to Dialectical Relationship Between Economic and Technical Developments Early Capitalism: Expanding Markets Interact With Technology of Navigation in Colonization Later Capitalism: Capital Goods Industries Benefit From Accumulation of Capital, Make Industrialization and Factory System Possible … hence technologies move control out of the workers’ hands.
Standard Periodization (MA) Special Areas of Focus in Textbook Accounts From Making America Prosperity Decade (1920s) The Best of Times (1950s) From A People and a Nation American Society During the Postwar Boom, 1945-1970
The Model T: Ford’s Car “For the Masses” as the Fulfillment of the American System of Manufacture Ford’s Assembly Line Single-Purpose Machine that Create Interchangeable Parts Conveyor Belts Workers Dedicated to “Feeding the Machines” Limits of Ford’s Manufacturing System Maximum Production at Minimum Cost Fails to Meet Need For Variety The GM Challenge “Flexible Mass Production” Move from Model T to Model A http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_ford http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_ford_1919.jpg
Boss Kettering is a study in Individualism, Invention and Corporate Culture Inventions in the Early Years Electric Cash Register at National Cash Register (NCR) and Self-Starting Engine at Delco Focus on the Market, Not the Engineers Head of Research At GM Leadership in R & D in Corporate America Ex. Rubber vs. Freon (Focusing the Engineers) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Kettering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Time-magazine-cover-charles-kettering.jpg
The Associative State in the 1920s and Early 1930s BPR under Thomas MacDonald State Agencies Look to Federal Government (BPR) for Advice, Engineering Studies of Materials, etc. Cooperative Effort With State Highway Associations
Special Issue of Technology and Culture in 2001 concentrated on the nexus of gender, class and technology. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tech/summary/v043/43.3smith.html
Details of Electrical Lighting The Great White Way and Artistic Portrayals of Electric Lighting Transforms Conception of the City Streetcars Private vs. Public Control of Electrical Industry Fosters Advertising, Department Stores and Amusement Parks
Standard Periodization (MA)
Could do more with The Best of Times (1950s) Suburban and Consumer Culture Family Culture Another View of Suburbia The Trouble With Kids
Margaret Graham ’s Consulting Firm: The Winthrop Group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CRVDisc.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videodisc
http://edison.rutgers.edu/
Simple PPT exports to slides, but one of the first to make these slides available in the 1990s. Notes on Sources: Monographs, Articles and Multimedia M.A. Reading List (Monographs) Exemplary Syllabi: Some Existing Resources Include: Syllabi, Book Reviews (H-Net), Journal Articles On-Line (T&C), Primary Source Materials (OTA Records) H-Net Interactive Teaching Resources SHOT Syllabi in the History of Technology Random Syllabi Found Via Google Search UCLA: Naomi Lamoreaux ’s “History of American Enterprise” MIT: David A. Mindell and Charles Leiserson ’s “The Structure of Engineering Revolutions” UMSL: Robert O. Keel ’s “Society and Technology
Click on the Image to go to site.
Click on the Image to go to site.
Carnegie Mellon University Program in Cold War Science and Technology Studies Click on the Image to go to site. Example Materials The Cold War and Beyond The Rise of Industrial Research and Development Guide to Cold War Web Sites
Click on the Image to go to site.
Stanford University History of Science and Philosophy Program http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/ Gabriela Hecht’s Sample Courses: “ Technology, Work and Culture in Comparative Perspective” “ Technology and Society” “ Technology and Culture in the 20th Century”
Merritt Roe Smith’s Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology John Kasson’s “The Factory as Republican Community,” “Technology and Imaginative Freedom” and “The Aesthetics of Machinery” in Civilizing the Machine (Chapters 3 and 4) Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s “The Invention of Housework” in More Work for Mother (Chapter 3)
David Hounshell’s “The American System in the Antebellum Period” and “The Sewing Machine and the American System of Manufactures” in From the American System to Mass Production (Chap. 1 and 2) Brooke Hindle’s Emulation and Invention Brooke Hindle and Steven Lubar’s Engines of Change Anthony Wallace’s Rockdale Judith A. McGaw’s Most Wonderful Machine
Thomas P. Hughes’ Networks of Power David Hounshell’s “Mass Production in the Woodworking Industries”, “”The McCormick Reaper Works” and “The Bicycle Industry” in From the American System to Mass Production (Chapters 3-5) Siegfried Giedeon’s “The Constituent Furniture of the 19th Century” and “Mechanization and Death: Meat” in Mechanization Takes Command
John Kasson’s “Technology and Utopia” in Civilizing the Machine (Chapter 5) Nathan Rosenberg’s “Marx as a Student of Technology” in Inside the Black Box
David Hounshell’s “The Ford Motor Company & The Rise of Mass Production in America” “The Limits of Fordism” and “The Ethos of Mass Production” From the American System to Mass Production (Chapters 6, 7 and 8) Stuart Leslie’s Boss Kettering Bruce E. Seeley’s Building the American Highway System See also Review of MacKenzie’s Inventing Accuracy in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Claude S. Fischer’s America Calling David Nye’s Electrifying America Roslyn L. Feldberg and Evelyn Nakano Glenn’s “Technology and Work Degredation” in Machina ex dea Ruth Oldenziel’s "Boys and Their Toys” in Technology and Culture (January 1997) Donald MacKenzie’s Inventing Accuracy Margaret Graham’s RCA and the Videodisc