Technology in America: A Brief History / Edition 3

by Alan I. Marcus, Howard P. Segal

Overview

Now in a thoroughly updated new edition, this successful textbook surveys the history of technology in America from the 1600s to the 21st century. Alan I Marcus and Howard P. Segal explore the effect society, culture, politics and economics have had upon technological advances, and place the evolution of American technology within the broader context of the development of systems such as transportation and communications. This unique book connects phenomena such as colonial printing presses with the American Revolution; early photographs with the creation of an allegedly unique American character; and high-tech advances in biotechnology with a growing desire for individual autonomy.

This is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of the history of technology, the history of science, and American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137334855
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/2018
Edition description:	3rd ed. 2018
Pages:	410
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Alan I Marcus, Professor and Head of the Department of History, Mississippi State University, USA.
Howard P. Segal, Professor of History, History Department, University of Maine, USA.
Alan I Marcus, Professor and Head of the Department of History, Mississippi State University, USA.

Howard P. Segal, Professor of History, History Department, University of Maine, USA.

Table of Contents

PART 1: From the Old World to the New
1. Manufacturing America: 1607 to 1800
2. Young America and Individual Opportunity: 1800 to the 1830s
PART 2: Uniformity, Diversity, and Systematizing America
3. American Nationalism: A People and Common Material Experience, Late 1830s to 1870s
4. Communications and Power to Communicate
5. Systematizing the Fabric of American Life: The 1870s to 1920s
6. Systematizing Workers and the Workplace
PART 3: From Industrial America to Post-Industrial America
7. Technology as a Social Solution: The 1920s to the 1950s
8. Technology as a Social Solution: World War II and the Aftermath
9. Expressing the Self: Individualism in an Era of Plenty, 1950 to 1960s
10. Public and Private: Technology as a Social Question
11. Public and Private: Technology and Individual Autonomy
12. Technology and Globalization.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS

'Marcus and Segal have produced the first comprehensive textbook on the history of American technology. The treatment, which covers the period from the early seventeenth century through the very recent past, may be characterized as one embedding technology within a matrix of social, political, economic, and cultural history. ... Reflecting the authors' mastery of recent scholarship, the book deserves a place in all academic and public libraries as well as consideration for college class use.' - Choice; recognized as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book.

Editorial Reviews

"This text is distinctive for its breadth of coverage. It offers a near encyclopedic quality, tackling a huge and disparate range of technologies (from colonial beer making to the invention of nuclear power) with skill." --John Wills, University of Kent, UK

"This book is valuable in emphasising "ideas" and intellectual history as the key to the history of technology, and in stressing how American culture and society impact technology (rather than vice-versa)." --Amy Bix, Iowa State University, USA

From the Publisher

Technology in America: A Brief History is a work of great merit which is written very skilfully in an intelligible form that is easily accessible to the educated general reader.
— Nature

Gunhard A. Oravas