A Social History of American Technology [Paperback]

Ruth Schwartz Cowan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195046056 | ISBN-13: 978-0195046052 | Publication Date: January 30, 1997 | Edition: 2nd Printing

For over 250 years American technology has been regarded as a unique hallmark of American culture and an important factor in American prosperity. Despite this American history has rarely been told from the perspective of the history of technology. A Social History of American Technology fills this gap by surveying the history of American technology from the tools used by the earliest native inhabitants to the technological systems -- cars and computers, aircraft and antibiotics -- we are familiar with today. Cowan makes use of the most recent scholarship to explain how the unique characteristics of American cultures and American geography have affected the technologies that have been invented, manufactured, and used throughout the years. She also focuses on the key individuals and ideas that have shaped important technological developments. The text explains how various technologies have affected the ways in which Americans work, govern, cook, transport, communicate, maintain their health, and reproduce. Cowan demonstrates that technological change has always been closely related to social development, and explores the multiple, complex relationships that have existed between such diverse social agents as households and businesses, the scientific community and the defense establishment, artists and inventors. Divided into three sections -- colonial America, industrialization, the 20th century -- A Social History of American Technology is ideal for courses in American social and economic history, as a correlated text for the American history survey, as well as for courses that focus on the history of American technology. It offers students the unique opportunity to learn not only how profoundly technological change has affected the American way of life, but how profoundly the American way of life has affected technology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A careful, effective overview of American technology. The narrative is fluent and certainly appropriate for upper-division undergraduates."--Dan O'Bryan, Sierra Nevada College

"A much-needed survey of industry and technology and their impact on American history."--Barbara M. Kelly, Hofstra University

"A very accessible, interesting, and informative survey that again and again provokes new ways of thinking about the American experience. I use this in a course on industrialization, but would also use it as a companion text in any American History survey. Engaging."--Dale H. Porter, Western Michigan University

"By far the best book of its kind in the field."--John S. Nader, State University of New York at Delhi

About the Author

Ruth Schwartz Cowan is at State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2nd Printing edition (January 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195046056
• ISBN-13: 978-0195046052
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A start to a very ambitious project, March 31, 2007

By 

Lehigh History Student (Bethlehem, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Social History of American Technology (Paperback)

Ruth Cowan attempts to show how technology has developed since the colonial days through the present trends of biotechnology. This is a daunting task and it is pulled off as well as can be expected. There is a lot of information to be found here but a great deal more is missing. This book is still the best general overview on the history of technology and while more can be done this is a good start. If you want to understand how technology shaped our society you can't go wrong with this book.

The early chapters on the colonial economy are very well done and tightly analyzed. After that it starts to spread apart a little and the technology jumps around. The transportation revolution chapter is one of the more disappointing for me. While she does a decent job on the railroads she completely misses the significance of the canals on the early development in America. Her chapters on innovation and technological systems provide nice summaries of the relevant literature. Most of the chapters leading up to the twentieth century are filler that really don't address too many technological issues. The automobile chapter tries to do an amazingly quick history of cars and a lot gets left out in the process with even more wrong. The communications chapter does a better job of showing the evolution while looking at the technologies. The history of the military-academic-industrial complex provides an interesting look at how the Manhattan Project and NASA changed the way technology was developed. Cowan does a very good job on this particular topic and it is probably her best chapter in the later part of the book. The final chapter is on biotechnology and covers genetic corn, birth control and penicillin. These advancements while important are not really given justice.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Broad, July 29, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Social History of American Technology (Paperback)

Very broad overview of American technology starting with the beginning of the United States all the way through fairly current biotechnology. There are a few good stories in here and the second half is by far the best. I really liked the sections on the railroad, the automobile, radio communication, penicillin, and the section on the birth control pill was by far the best. Is it true that doctors and researchers weren't allowed to talk about birth control till past the early 1950's in the United States? Here's an interesting quote...

"In short, by 1880 if by some weird accident all the batteries that generated electricity for telegraph lines had suddenly run out, the economic and social life of the nation would have faltered. Trains would have stopped running; businesses with branch offices would have stopped functioning; newspapers could have not covered distant events; the president could not have communicated with his European ambassadors; the stock market would have to close; family members separated by long distances could have not relayed important news to each other. By the turn of the century, the telegraph system was both literally and figuratively a network, linking together various aspects of national life- making people increasingly dependent on one another."

Y2K, ay?

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A history book written like a novel, September 19, 2008

By 

K. M. Purcell (Southern Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Social History of American Technology (Paperback)

Unlike normal event-name-date-place-next event history books, this one is written to be read. It draws the reader into the story of the social and cultural interaction with the development of technology. It is a great read for anyone interested in how we got to where we are.