Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture (science.culture) [Hardcover]

Thomas P. Hughes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226359336 | ISBN-13: 978-0226359335 | Publication Date: July 19, 2004 | Edition: 1

To most people, technology has been reduced to computers, consumer goods, and military weapons; we speak of "technological progress" in terms of RAM and CD-ROMs and the flatness of our television screens. In Human-Built World, thankfully, Thomas Hughes restores to technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential.

Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an "ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems. From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing mechanization of American life.

Such divergent views, Hughes shows, have existed side by side, demonstrating the fundamental idea that "in its variety, technology is full of contradictions, laden with human folly, saved by occasional benign deeds, and rich with unintended consequences." In Human-Built World, he offers the highly engaging history of these contradictions, follies, and consequences, a history that resurrects technology, rightfully, as more than gadgetry; it is in fact no less than an embodiment of human values.

(20040717)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As Thomas P. Hughes shows in this brilliantly concise history, people were arguing about the rights and wrongs of technology long before the term gained currency in the 20th century. Hughes, a former Pulitzer Prize finalist and the US''s most eminent historian of technology, is correct to interpret the term in the broadest sense. . . . Drawing on the views of philosophers, churchmen, artists, social theorists and engineers, Hughes shows how much of the controversy surrounding technology has reflected an ambivalence about the human will to create. . . . As Hughes shows, these arguments have grown more acute, especially as technology has moved from the idealism of the "machine age" to a more modern and more insidious development based on systems, controls, and communication."

(Mark Archer Financial Times 20041009)

"Human-Built World offers a thoroughgoing, incisively rendered, and engaging history of humanity''s relationship to technology. . . . Although Hughes gives invention and engineering a central role in the creation of our world, the purpose of his sprightly polemic is to rail against technological determinism. . . . Human-Built World is, in one sense, a call for greater and more widespread education about technology. . . . As technically based systems already invisibly govern so much of our daily lives and will continue to penetrate our culture still further, this is a timely and urgent book."

(Adam Wishart Times Literary Supplement 20041201)

"America''s foremost historian of technology."

(Eliot A. Cohen Foreign Affairs )

"A virtuoso overview of the various relationships between technology, comme (Graham Farmelo Nature )

"Hughes goes on to provide a compelling story of how engineering was thought to have the capability, and indeed the destiny, of providing a second (and better) edenic creation. . . . An excellent overview of how to think about culture and technology. The book should be required reading for anyone who aspires to participate meaningfully in our technological society."--Domenico Grasso, Science

(Domenico Grasso Science )

"In Human-Built World, Thomas Hughes draws on the breadth and depth of his long career as one of the 20th century''s most eminent historians of technology. This concise book not only charts a course through a rich sea of intellectual engagements . . . it also implicitly documents Hughes own intellectual journey."--Emily Thompson, American Scientist

(Emily Thompson American Scientist )

"Were I to teach a survey course on the history of modern technology, I would strongly consider using this book. Thomas P. Hughes takes the reader over a vast stretch of time and through complex ideas and scores of individuals to present an intellectual history of technology."—Paul Josephson, American Historical Review

 

(Paul Josephson American Historical Review )

“Do not be deceived: this work may be short and written for the general public, but this senior statesman of our field distills a great deal into Human-Built World. . . . [Hughes] argues that particularly after the industrial revolution, Western cultures reconstructed the material world and reconceived their relationship to nature, as people ‘believed that they had the creative technological power to make a world according to their own blueprints.’ . . . If a doctoral thesis crawls over one patch of ground, this book jets over the landscape of our discipline, emphasizing its adjacence to art, architecture, literature, and environmental history. . . . What Hughes has done is distill much of our discipline into a small compass. Human-Build World can serve as the framework for an undergraduate course.”--David Nye,

Technology and Culture

 

(David E. Nye Technology and Culture )

"I have difficulty finding weak spots in this book. . . . It is a well composed study that Iwill gladly recommend both as course literature and to colleagues and friends."

(Nina Wormbs Nuncius )

"For almost four decades, Thomas Parke Hughes has been shaping scholarly discourse in the hiostory of technology. He has explored technology in the small and in the large . . . and most important, he has been a central figure in efforts to build a bridge between technical and humanistic cultures. . . . Now, after years of scholarly study, Hughes has stepped back to reflect on the larger meaning of what he has learned."

(Arthur Molella Minerva )

From the Inside Flap

To most people, technology has been reduced to computers, consumer goods, and military weapons; we speak of "technological progress" in terms of RAM and CD-ROMs and the flatness of our television screens. In Human-Built World, thankfully, Thomas Hughes restores to technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential.

Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an "ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems. From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing mechanization of American life.

Such divergent views, Hughes shows, have existed side by side, demonstrating the fundamental idea that "in its variety, technology is full of contradictions, laden with human folly, saved by occasional benign deeds, and rich with unintended consequences." In Human-Built World, he offers the highly engaging history of these contradictions, follies, and consequences, a history that resurrects technology, rightfully, as more than gadgetry; it is in fact no less than an embodiment of human values.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (July 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226359336
• ISBN-13: 978-0226359335
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #731,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving technology to the forefront of history, May 17, 2007

By 

James Hoogerwerf (Auburn, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture (science.culture) (Paperback)

Thomas Parker Hughes, scholar, professor, and author, has dedicated himself "to better [understanding] the complexity of technology and its multiple uses."(1) Hughes believes Americans construe technology too broadly. In "Human-Built World" Hughes defines technology "as a mode of creation"(177) and he expands on the theme that "humans have been engaged in creating a living and working place."(179)

Technology is the main thread in his history, but technology does not determine history's course. For better or worse that is left to society. Particularly in relation to the environment, Hughes concedes the century of technological enthusiasm is in the beginning stage of deterioration. The human-built world is now in trouble, but society may respond appropriately and respond with an "ecotechnological" answer. According to Hughes "using technology to recover the Edonic state is a message entirely appropriate for our ecologically concerned times."(43) Society has to take on the responsibility, but whether technology's ecological legacy can be redressed, remains an open question.

In Human-Built World Hughes observes that enthusiasm toward a technologically based world diminished between World War I and II. Hughes theorizes that the human-built world did not become a paradise is due more to "negative political and social values and structures, than to a failure in rational cooperation."(37) At a time when "artists and the concerned public have begun to doubt the completely human-built world can respond to human needs and aspirations," managing the systems-age is a "major societal challenge."(12) This tension Hughes hopes may be resolved in the "ecotechnological world."(152) Hughes is optimistic that technology can solve the problem; he is just not sure that society is technically literate enough to do it.

Therefore one of Hughes' objectives is to increase the "technological literacy of Americans"(15); to inform and motivate people toward greater public participation to counter what he sees as the "the Burden" of technology.(168) Hughes is optimistic that a socio-technical systems answer may be the key to surmounting technology's negative legacy. With a clarity of purpose, Hughes frequently explains what he is doing, enabling the reader to follow his logic. His tone and style of writing fits his audience and his purpose. Hughes' effort to make history more appealing to a wider audience is admirable.

While Hughes wants "to move...[technology] from the periphery to toward the center stage of history,"(181) a technologically based future is uncertain. If society fails to rise to the challenge, the role of technology will remain at the periphery rather than on center stage.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent, concise review, December 31, 2009

By 

Mark S (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture (science.culture) (Paperback)

The Human-Built world is a wonderfully concise rendering, in both theme and prose, of the history and role of technology in the West, particularly the U.S., whilst losing very little explanatory power.

Hughes starts with the philosophic impetus for technology in ancient literature (Cicero) and Christian theology. The first saw in man's nature an urge to develop a "second creation"; the latter sought the recovery of Eden. In Goethe's Faust, a second creation is a manifestation of man's creativity and egotism, a challenge to God. In founding America, the Puritans saw themselves as a moral beacon for the rest of the world, "a Citty upon a Hill".

In Chapters Two to Four, Hughes traces the development of technology from the machine revolution of the 19th century to the systems and control revolution of the 20th century to the current information revolution: each not only created something new but also re-conceptualized things and men.

In the final two chapters, technology's impact, culturally and environmentally, is discussed. The message here is the need to reign in technology; its pervasiveness and power can have a detrimental influence on culture and the environment.

Hughes also indulges in a few quick and incisive comments along the way. The Europeans did not uniquely transform North America, the Indians also controlled their environment (p. 7); on the arms race: "Unfortunately, many Americans today find spectacular energy laden weaponry sublime" (p. 39). Also helpful is the bibliographic essay, which I've used to find further reading.

This little book is a dynamo of information and insight. It's highly recommended.