Science and Technology in 20th-Century American Life

Science and Technology in 20th-Century American Life
Author: Christopher Cumo
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2007-08-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0313081530

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The twentieth century witnessed the greatest changes in technology and science that humans have ever witnessed. These occurred rapidly and affected such a broad range of people. Scientists, inventors, and engineers built upon the great inventions of the 19th century to expand the reach of modern technology - for a citizen in 1900, communication, transportation, and agricultural was still primarily local activities; by 2000, an American citizen was part of an interconnected global community. These developments in science and technology were also important in the social and cultural changes of the period. The Great Depression, the World Wars and Cold War, the civil rights and women's rights movements - all were greatly impacted by the rapid scientific and technological advancements in the universities and industry.

Science and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America

Science and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America
Author: Todd Timmons
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2005-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313017654

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The 19th Century was a period of tremendous change in the daily lives of the average Americans. Never before had such change occurred so rapidly or and had affected such a broad range of people. And these changes were primarily a result of tremendous advances in science and technology. Many of the technologies that play such an central role in our daily life today were first invented during this great period of innovation—everything from the railroad to the telephone. These inventions were instrumental in the social and cultural developments of the time. The Civil War, Westward Expansion, the expansion and fall of slave culture, the rise of the working and middle classes and changes in gender roles—none of these would have occurred as they did had it not been for the science and technology of the time. Science and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America chronicles this relationship between science and technology and the revolutions in the lives of everyday Americans. The volume includes a discussion of: Transportation—from the railroad and steamship to the first automobiles appearing near the end of the century. Communication—including the telegraph, the telephone, and the photograph Industrialization— how the growing factory system impacted the lives of working men and women Agriculture—how mechanical devices such as the McCormick reaper and applications of science forever altered how farming was done in the United States Exploration and navigations—the science and technology of the age was crucial to the expansion of the country that took place in the century, and The book includes a timeline and a bibliography for those interested in pursuing further research, and over two dozen fascinating photos that illustrate the daily lives of Americans in the 19th Century Part of the Daily Life through History series, this title joins Science and Technology in Colonial America in a new branch of the series-titles specifically looking at how science innovations impacted daily life.

The Machine in America

The Machine in America
Author: Carroll W. Pursell
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 1995
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780801848186

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From the medieval farm implements brought by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of our 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 upon the lives of women and men, their work, politics, and social relationships--and in turn, their influence upon 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. And he shows how the export of technology helped to foster American hegemony both in theWestern Hemisphere and elsewhere in the world. Pursell also argues that American technology has created a social hegemony, not only over the way we live but also over how we evaluate that life. He shows that such developments as scientific management techniques and industrial research changed Americans' lives as much as the mass production of such durable consumer goods as radios and automobiles. In many ways, he concludes, today's military-industrial complex is the legacy of the intense cooperation betweenscience and technology during World War II.

Technology & American History

Technology & American History
Author: Stephen H. Cutcliffe
Publisher:
Total Pages: 448
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780226710273

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Technology and American History explores the technological dimension of American life from the birth of American industry in the late eighteenth century to the massive industrial systems of the late-twentieth century. Emphasizing a societal context for technology, this carefully-organized collection demonstrates both the manner in which cultural, political, and economic forces shape innovation, and the ways that technology has influenced society and shaped its values. Individual essays explore the importance of textile manufacturing in American industrialization, the role of the federal government in regulating new modes of transport, the development of interchangeable parts in production, the process of innovation, the notion of technological systems, and the relationship between technological change and work in the factory, on the farm, and in the home. This collection will be extremely useful for faculty and students in undergraduate survey courses in the history of American technology as well as interdisciplinary science, technology and society courses. In addition, general readers will find this collection accessible and engaging.

Science, Technology, and Society

Science, Technology, and Society
Author: Phillis Engelbert
Publisher:
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2002
Genre: Science
ISBN:

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Examines scientific discoveries and developments within their historic context, showing how social trends and events influenced science and how scientific developments changed people's lives.

Chronology of 20th-Century America

Chronology of 20th-Century America
Author: Melinda Corey
Publisher: Facts on File
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2005-08-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780816056460

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Covers events and achievements in politics, everyday life, the arts, and science and technology in 20th-century America.

Science in the 20th Century

Science in the 20th Century
Author: Jonathan Piel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 183
Release: 1991
Genre: Science
ISBN:

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A Short History of Physics in the American Century

A Short History of Physics in the American Century
Author: David C. Cassidy
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2013-09-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674725824

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As the twentieth century ended, computers, the Internet, and nanotechnology were central to modern American life. Yet the physical advances underlying these applications are poorly understood and underappreciated by U.S. citizens. In this overview, Cassidy views physics through America's engagement with the political events of a tumultuous century.

Human-Built World

Human-Built World
Author: Thomas P. Hughes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2005-05-13
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 022612066X

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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.