From the medieval farm implements used by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of society as well. Arguing that the tools and processes we use are a part of our lives, not simply instruments of our purpose, historian Carroll Pursell analyzes technology's impact on the lives of women and men, on their work, politics, and social relationships - and how, in turn, people influence on technological development. Pursell shows how both the idea of progress and the mechanical means to harness the forces of nature developed and changed as they were brought from the Old World to the New. He describes the ways in which American industrial and agricultural technology began to take on a distinctive shape as it adapted and extended the technical base of the industrial revolution. He discusses the innovation of an American system of manufactures and the mechanization of agriculture; new systems of mining, lumbering, and farming, which helped conquer and define the West; and the technologies that shaped the rise of cities. In the second edition of The Machine in America, Pursell brings this classic history up to date with a revised chapter on war technology and new discussions on information technology, globalization, and the environment.Reviews''It would be hard to find a better introduction to the history of American technologyor, for that matter, to American history itself.''American Heritage of Invention and Technology , reviewing a previous edition or volume''A balanced and clearly written account of the development of American manufacturing and engineering from the colonial period to the present.''American Studies International , reviewing a previous edition or volume
PrefaceIntroductionI. The Transit of Technology1. The Tools Brought Over2. Importing the Industrial Revolution3. Improving TransportationII. The Domestication of the Industrial Revolution4. The Expansion of American Manufactures5. The Mechanization of FarmingIII. The Imprint of American Technology6. Creating an Urban Environment7. Westward the Course of Industry8. Export, Exploitation, and EmpireIV. Technology and Hegemony9. The Coming of Science and Systems10. The Decade of Prosperity and Consumption11. Depression: Study and Subsidy12. Wars and the ""American Century""13. Challenge and Change in a Postmodern WorldV. Globalization14. Our (Un)Wired World15. America's Global ReachNotesFurther ReadingIndex
""The Machine in America has been enduring for multiple reasons, including its solid prose, excellent illustrations and captions, use of current themes (gender, race, class), focus on how society constructs technology, and a critical view of technology as something that historically has been used in America, all too often, to reinforce the powerful rather than help the weak.""
