A Social History of American Technology

Second Edition

Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Matthew H. Hersch

A Social History of American Technology, Second Edition, tells the story of American technology from the tools used by its earliest inhabitants to the technological systems--cars and computers, aircraft and antibiotics--that we are familiar with today. Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Matthew H. Hersch demonstrate how technological change has always been closely related to social and economic development, and examine the important mutual relationships between social history and technological change. They explain how the unique characteristics of American cultures and American geography have affected the technologies that have been invented, manufactured, and used throughout the years--and also the reverse: how those technologies have affected the daily lives, the unique cultures, and the environments of all Americans.

New to this Edition:

An updated discussion of the automobile, including fuel efficiency, electric vehicles, the decline of the Big Four auto companies, and climate change
An extended examination of aerospace technology, including satellites, space shuttles, GPS, and precision-guided weapons
An expanded examination of wireless telegraphy, radio, and television and other electronic media
New material on information technologies, from mainframe computers to personal computers, the internet, social media and smartphones
A new examination of twentieth-century food and drug technologies, in terms of their unintended consequences, reframed as examples of technoscience
A new chapter on biotechnology, explaining the science of genetic modification and exploring genetically modified bacteria as drug factories and genetically modified plants as food products

A Social History of American Technology

Second Edition

Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Matthew H. Hersch

Description

A Social History of American Technology, Second Edition, tells the story of American technology from the tools used by its earliest inhabitants to the technological systems--cars and computers, aircraft and antibiotics--that we are familiar with today. Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Matthew H. Hersch demonstrate how technological change has always been closely related to social and economic development, and examine the important mutual relationships between social history and technological change. They explain how the unique characteristics of American cultures and American geography have affected the technologies that have been invented, manufactured, and used throughout the years--and also the reverse: how those technologies have affected the daily lives, the unique cultures, and the environments of all Americans.

Previous publication dates

January 1996

A Social History of American Technology

Second Edition

Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Matthew H. Hersch

Each chapter ends with Notes and Suggestions for Further Reading.

Introduction: The Origins of American Technology
A Social History of American Technology

1. The Land, the Natives, and the Settlers
The Land and the Native Inhabitants
The European Settlers
The Colonial Economy
Colonial Economic Policy and Technological Change
Conclusion: Quickening the Pace of Technological Change

2. Agricultural and Craft Work in the Colonies
Colonial Farming
The Myth of Self-Sufficiency
Artisanal Work in the Colonies
The Apprenticeship System and Labor Scarcity
Printers and Print Shops
Iron Foundries and Iron Workers
Historical Significance of the Colonial Crafts
Conclusion: Reasons for the Slow Pace of Technological Change

3. From Farm to Factory
Oliver Evans (1755-1819)
Eli Whitney (1765-1825)
Samuel Slater (1768-1835)
Conclusion: The Unique Character of American
Industrialization

4. Transportation Revolutions
Transportation Difficulties
Toll Roads and Entrepreneurs
Canal Building and State Financing
Steamboats: Steam Power and State Power
Railroads: Completing a National Transportation
System
Introduction: Industrial Society

5. Technological Systems and Industrial Society
Industrialization, Dependency, and Technological Systems
The Telegraph System
The Railroad System
The Petroleum System
The Telephone System
The Electric System
The Character of Industrialized Society
Conclusion: Industrialization and Technological Systems

6. Everyday Labor in the Mechanical Age
Farmers and Unexpected Outcomes
Skilled and Deskilled Workers
Unskilled Workers
Housewives and House Servants
Conclusion: Was Industrialization Good or Bad for Workers?

7. Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Engineers
The Patent System: The Public History of Invention
Inventors: Changes between 1820 and 1920
Entrepreneurs: Innovation and Diffusion
Engineers: Changes between 1820 and 1920
Introduction: New Frontiers, New Fears
20th-Century Technology: Blessing or Curse?

8. Automobiles and Automobility
Who Invented the Automobile?
Henry Ford and the Mass-Produced Automobile
Alfred P. Sloan and the Mass-Marketed American
Automobile
Automobility and the Road System before 1945
Automobility and the Road System, 1945-1970
The Unexpected Consequences of Automobility
Conclusion: The Paradox of Automobility

9. Taxpayers, Generals, and Aerospace
The Early Days of Aircraft and the Aircraft Industry
World War II: A Turning Point
The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex
Civilian Spin-offs of the Aviation Revolution
From Air Flight to Spaceflight
Precision-Guided Weapons and Modern War
Conclusion: Costs and Benefits of Military Sponsorship

10. Electronic Communication and Social Control
Wireless Telegraphy
Wireless Telephony
Government Regulation of Wireless Communication
Wireless Broadcasting: Radio
Television
Conclusion: Centralization and Electronic
Communication

11. Electronic Brains and Global Villages
The Origins of the Computer
The Digital Electronic Computer
Real-Time Computing and SAGE
Electronic Components: The Transistor and the Integrated Circuit
IBM and the Maturation of the Computer Industry
The Rise of the Personal Computer
From ARPANET to Internet
Reinventing the Telephone: The Smartphone and Social Networking
Conclusion: The Ultimate Failure of Efforts to Control
Electronic Communication

12. Foods, Drugs, and Unintended
Consequences
Science, Technology, and TechnoScience
Hybrid Corn
Penicillin
The Birth Control Pill
Conclusion

13. TechnoScience and the Biotech Industry
Recombinant DNA
The Biotech Industry Begins
The First Controversy: Public Rights, Private Interests, and Safety
The Flavr Saver Tomato
Monsanto and the Continuing GMO Controversy
Coda: Thinking About Technology
Ideas that Americans Have Associated with Technology
Conclusion: How Thinking Historically Helps
Us Think About Technology

CODA: THINKING ABOUT TECHNOLOGY

A Social History of American Technology

Second Edition

Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Matthew H. Hersch

Author Information

Ruth Schwartz Cowan is Janice and Julian Bers Professor Emerita of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Matthew H. Hersch is Assistant Professor of History of Science at Harvard University.