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9781421417837 Academic Inspection Copy

Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans

The Politics of Everyday Technologies
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Who would have guessed that the first sports bra was made out of two jockstraps sewn together or that it succeeded because of federal anti-discrimination laws? What do simple decisions about where to build a road or whether to buy into the carbon economy have to do with Hurricane Katrina or the Fukushima nuclear disaster? How did massive flood control projects on the Mississippi River and New Deal dams on the Columbia River lead to the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup? And what explains the creation and continued popularity of the humble fish stick? In Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminium Cans, historian Paul R. Josephson explores the surprising origins, political contexts, and social meanings of ordinary objects. Drawing on archival materials, technical journals, interviews, and field research, this engaging collection of essays reveals the forces that shape (and are shaped by) everyday objects. Ultimately, Josephson suggests that the most familiar and comfortable objects sugar and aluminium, for example, which are inextricably tied together by their linked history of slavery and colonialism may have the more astounding and troubling origins. Students of consumer studies and the history of technology, as well as scholars and general readers, will be captivated by Josephson's insights into the complex relationship between society and technology.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Ocean's Hot Dog
2. The Sports Bra
3. Sugar, Bananas, and Aluminum Cans
4. Mass-Produced Nutrition
5. Technology and (Natural) Disasters
6. Big Artifacts
Conclusion
Notes
Suggested Further Reading
Index

""... every chapter of this book offers surprising insights and is a pleasure to read GÇô not only for academic readers or lecturers who might find the essays very suitable to discuss with students. The book will also be appreciated by a broader audience interested in learning more about the complex technological systems that are bound up in the artefacts surrounding us.""

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