Technology and Choice: Readings from Technology and Culture

by Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette (Editor), Jeffrey K. Stine (Editor)

Overview

Innovation - the imaginative attempt to introduce something new or to solve some problem - smashes routine and demands choice, even if only the choice to retain the status quo. This collection of fourteen essays provides a spectrum of historical perspectives on how, when, or why, individuals, societies, governments, and industries have made choices regarding the use of technologies.

Through historical accounts that span centuries and national boundaries, exploring the complexity of a nuclear power plant and the apparent simplicity of an electrical plug, the contributors to this volume dramatically illustrate the push and pull between technology and society. General topics addressed include:

• Regulation of private industry
• Social acceptance of commercial innovation
• Negative perceptions of the "Technological Age"
• Cultural and artistic features of technology

Provocative and accessible, this collection will serve both students and faculty in history, sociology, and public policy, as well as in history and philosophy of science and technology. 

These essays were originally published in the journal Technology and Culture

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226467771
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press Journals
Publication date:	06/17/1991
Edition description:	1
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette is an independent historian who has taught at the Johns Hopkins University, the George Washington University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of several books, including Making Science Our Own: Public Images of Science, 1910–1955, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and Reframing Scopes: Journalists, Scientists, and Lost Photographs from the Trial of the Century.

Editorial Reviews

Through historical accounts that span centuries and national boundaries, exploring the complexity of a nuclear power plant and the apparent simplicity of an electrical plug, this collection of 14 essays, originally published in the journal Technology and culture, illustrates the push and pull between technology and society. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews