Thomas Edison and Modern America: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History & Culture) [Paperback]

Theresa M. Collins (Author), Lisa Gitelman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312247346 | ISBN-13: 978-0312247348 | Publication Date: May 22, 2002

Thomas A. Edison remains rooted in the popular imagination primarily as the inventor of the practical electric light, but he also continues to function in the lexicons of advertising and politics as a symbol of American individualism, ingenuity, and know-how. Introduced here with a broad range of primary sources for discussion, the American inventor emerges as a prolific mind, a tireless worker, and an inveterate self-promoter. Examples of Edison’s own experimental notes, his personal correspondence, as well as press accounts provide an opportunity to explore the themes of modernization and the American ideology of progress. The volume includes an extended introduction, headnotes to the documents, illustrations, a chronology, discussion questions, a bibliography, and an index.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This highly readable account...[is] useful as a resource for college courses..."--C.G. Wood, Choice

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

THERESA M. COLLINS teaches international history at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The author of Locating Otto Kahn: The Banker-Patron in Modern Time (2002), and a co-editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers, her work is focused on business history, modernity, and cosmopolitan culture.

LISA GITELMAN teaches Media Studies at Catholic University and is a former co-editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers. Her work includes Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines: Representing Technology in the Edison Era (1999) and the edited collection New Media, 1740-1915 (2002).

GREGORY JANKUNIS is a research associate at the Thomas A. Edison Papers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's (May 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312247346
• ISBN-13: 978-0312247348
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From HISTORY TEACHER Review, March 11, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Thomas Edison and Modern America: An Introduction with Documents (Hardcover)

"... The collection's strength is in the broad diversity of primary sources offered and the issues that Collins and Gitelman raise for student discussion. This is no mere biography of Edison the "Great Inventor." The sources include selections from Edison's memoirs, diaries, notebooks, and letters, as well as accounts of Edison and his inventions as presented by the popular media. We thus witness Edison fashioning his own self image-sometimes in contradictory ways-just as the press was turning him into a media hero. Laboratory records by Edison and his assistants chart the development of the phonograph and the use of electricity, while newspaper and magazine articles bear witness to the intense speculation surrounding the social effects Edison's inventions would create."

David A. Reid, University of North Florida