STS.001 TECHNOLOGY IN AMERICAN HISTORY
A HASS-CI SUBJECT - Spring 2004
Dr. Brendan Foley <bpfoley@mit.edu>
TA - Esra Ozkan <esra@mit.edu>
TA - Nate Greenslit <npg@mit.edu>
Writing Tutor - Mary Caulfield <mcaulf@mit.edu>
This class will consider the ways in which technology, broadly defined, has contributed to the building of American society from colonial times to the present. Far from being an “add-on” to political and social events, technology is viewed as a central organizing theme in American history. Indeed, the United States is often referred to as “the technological society.” What does that expression mean? Why did it originate? How and in what ways does technology intersect with society and politics? How has “technological progress” been construed in America? Does technology mean progress? If so, progress for whom and for what? What is the relationship between technology and democracy in America? How have notions of “responsibility” in engineering and technology development changed over time?
This course has three primary goals: to train students to ask critical questions of both technology and the broader culture of American society; to provide a historical perspective with which to frame and address such questions; and to encourage students to be neither blind critics of new technologies, nor blind advocates for technologies in general, but thoughtful and educated participants in the democratic process.
This class meets two times per week: on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. in building 4-163. Each meeting will begin with a lecture or film, followed by discussion in section. In each section meeting, two students will present questions and lead the discussion. In addition to attending all classes, students are expected to participate in these discussions by reading assigned materials before class and thinking about the themes, questions, and historical patterns the readings suggest.
Writing for this course will consist of a 5-6 page book report (see attached list), a 10 page essay on an assigned topic, and two 2-3 page reading response/reflection papers. Specific instructions about these assignments will follow. Due dates for these assignments are:
Book review: Due March 10
Essay: Due April 21
Reading response papers: each student will be assigned a date on which he or she is
expected to submit the first response paper. Topics raised in these papers will be discussed during section meeting. The second response paper will be due at the end of term, and will be a reflection on the general themes of the class. An example response paper will be distributed, to give you an idea of how to construct your own responses.
All written work must be typed in 12-point font, double-spaced, with adequate margins. All papers must be proofread (not just spell-checked) before submission; papers will be downgraded for errors of carelessness. Students who need extra help with writing should visit the Writing Center as they prepare papers for submission, or schedule an appointment with the class Writing Instructor two weeks in advance of due dates. After initial grading, the book review and essay will be revised by students and re-submitted. Improvements will result in higher grades.
There is no final exam for this class. However, there will be two short quizzes covering the reading and lecture material. Keep in mind that the lectures and the readings for this course usually do not cover the same material, and lecture notes are not available in the library. This means you must be present in class and take good notes in order to be prepared for the quizzes.
Final grades will be determined as follows:
Book review: 25%
Essay: 30%
Reflection papers: 20%
Quizzes: 25%
Regular attendance, participation, and a good attitude are essential. Without all three you will not get much out of this course. Attendance will be taken daily and poor attendance will result in severe final grade penalties. Each student is allowed no more than four (4) cuts. Thereafter one’s final grade will be reduced by one full grade per cut. If a situation arises during the term (family emergency, illness, etc.) and you have to miss classes, please be sure to notify the instructor.
The following textbooks are required and may be purchased at the Tech Coop:
Ruth Schwarz Cowan, A Social History of Technology (New York: Oxford UP,
1997)
Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey, eds., Major Problems in the History of
American Technology (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998)
Films will be deposited at the Reserve Desk in the Humanities Library immediately after their showing in class. Students who have missed seeing a film may view it in the Library.
W 4 Feb Introduction
Film: “A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama”
M 9 Feb What is technology?
Read: Smith and Clancey, Major Problems in the History of American
Technology, pp. xiii-xv (preface), 2-15 (Marx, Winner, and MacKenzie essays);
Cowan, Social History of American Technology, pp. 201-218.
W 11 Feb Technologies of colonization and conquest
Read: Smith and Clancey, pp. 26-60;
Cowan, pp. 5-27.
M 16 Feb Presidents’ Day Holiday – Monday schedule on Tuesday
T 17 Feb Crafts and craftsmanship in early America
Read: Cowan, pp. 45-65.
Film: “The Colonial Gunsmith” (Williamsburg)
W 18 Feb Paul Revere: Technologist?
Guest Speaker: Prof. Rob Martello, Olin College
M 23 Feb Politics and early American industrialization
Read: Smith and Clancey, pp. 103-142;
Cowan, pp. 67-91.
Lecture: Technology and nationalism, c. 1790s-1800s
W 25 Feb Textiles, Firearms, and the role of the state in early American
industry
Lecture: From Swords to Plowshares: the domestication of military
technologies prior to the Civil War
Artifacts: loom shuttle; cloth made at Lowell.
M 1 Mar Social and Political Implications of the New Technology
Read: Smith and Clancey, pp. 144-189.
Lecture: Technology and Politics
W 3 Mar The Transportation Revolution
Read: Cowan, pp. 93-118;
Smith and Clancey, pp. 191-221-232.
Lecture: “System/Order/Uniformity”: Army engineers and the rise of
modern management
M 8 Mar Art and industrialization
Read: Cowan, pp. 208-218; also read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story,
“The Celestial Railroad” (handout).
Lecture: The railroad as a technological symbol in American art
W 10 Mar The emerging culture of engineering
Read: Cowan, pp. 119-147;
M.R. Smith, “Becoming Engineers” (essay handout).
***BOOK REVIEW DUE***
M 15 Mar Technology, Civil War, and the rise of big business
Read: Cowan, pp. 149-171-199;
Smith and Clancey, pp. 234-255.
Artifact: Remington typewriter
W 17 Mar Film: “Brooklyn Bridge”
22 – 26 Mar Spring break
M 29 Mar The Navy Roots of American Engineering
Read: B. Foley, “U.S. Navy Engineers as Educators” (essay handout)
W 31 Mar Human Machines? Taylorism
Film: “Clockwork”
Read: Smith and Clancey, pp. 267-311.
M 5 Apr Automobility and Mass Production
Read: Cowan, pp. 221-248;
Smith and Clancey, 313-354.
W 7 Apr Autos and American Culture
Guest Speaker: David Lucsko
M 12 Apr Film: “Modern Times” (1936, with Charlie Chaplin)
W 14 Apr Hobbyist worlds and modern America
Read: Smith and Clancey, pp. 355-382, 510-515.
M 19 Apr Patriot’s Day Holiday – no class
W 21 Apr Aeronautics and the systems approach
Read: Cowan, pp. 249-356.
Guest speaker: Dr. Deborah Douglas (MIT Museum)
***ESSAY DUE***
M 26 Apr World War II: A Technological Turning Point?
Read: Cowan, pp. 256-270.
Guest Speaker: Prof. David Mindell (STS, MIT)
W 28 Apr Film: “The Day After Trinity”
M 3 May A New World Order: Technology in Cold War America
Read: Smith and Clancey, pp. 427-469.
W 5 May Computers and Control
Read: Smith and Clancey, pp. 471-496, 516-518.
Also read David Noble, “Social Choice in Machine Design” (on reserve)
Film: Automation (with Edward R. Murrow)
M 10 May Technology and Terrorism: Homeland Security After 9/11
Guest Speaker: Christiana Briggs (Booz Allen Hamilton)
W 12 May Technology and Popular Culture
Guest Speaker: Shane Hamilton on the electric guitar
Hugh G. J. Aitken, Taylorism at Watertown Arsenal (1960). A study of the introduction of scientific management at a government arsenal near here and the controversies it raised. This book was re-issued in 1984 under the title Scientific Management in Action.
Lindy Biggs, The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology, and Work in America’s Age of Mass Production (1996).
Robert V. Bruce, Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude (1973). Biography.
Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Computer (1996). The spread of computer culture since the 1970s.
Thomas C. Cochrane, Frontiers of Change (1981). A business historian’s perspective on early industrialization.
Gail Cooper, Air-Conditioning in America: Engineers and the Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (1998).
Ruth S. Cowan, More Work for Mother (1983). Gender and technology.
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991). An important study of how Chicago became the “metropolis” of the West.
Charles Dew, Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge (1994). The lives and labor of slave ironworkers in the Great Valley of Virginia.
Thomas Dublin, Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in
Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826–1860 (1979). Women textile workers at Lowell.
Colleen A. Dunlavy, Politics and Industrialization (1994). A comparative study of American and German railroads in the 19th century (with emphasis on the role of the state).
Paul N. Edwards, The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America (1996).
Deborah K. Fitzgerald, The Business of Breeding: Hybrid Corn in Illinois, 1890-1940 (1990).
Robert B. Gordon and Patrick M. Malone, The Texture of Industry (1994). An important treatment of the material culture and archaeology of 19th-century industrialization.
Daniel Headrick, The Tools of Empire (1981). A non-American book about technology and imperialism in the 19th century.
David A. Hounshell, From the American System to Mass Production (1984). A definitive study of the origins of interchangeable manufacturing and mechanization of industry, culminating with the mass production of the Model T Ford.
Thomas P. Hughes, American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological
Enthusiasm, 1870–1970 (1989). A general survey of technology in America from the 1870s to the 1970s.
Thomas P. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus (1998). A history of large engineering projects in the United States since World War II.
Louis C. Hunter, Steamboats on the Western Rivers (1949). The definitive work on steasmboating on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Be forewarned, however, it is a big book!
R. Douglas Hurt, American Farm Tools (1982). A study that covers everything from plows to steam engines.
Andrew C. Isenberg, The Destruction of the Bison (2000).
Paul Israel, Edison (1999). A prize-winning biography.
Paul Israel, From Machine Shop to Industrial Laboratory (1992). How research and development in the early telegraph industry became increasingly scientific.
Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of America (1985).
Robert Kanigel, The One Best Way (1997). Biography of Frederick W. Taylor.
John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine (1976). Technology, politics and culture in the 19th-century.
Bruce Laurie, Artisans into Workers (1971). A labor historian’s perspective on the industrial revolution.
Edwin T. Layton, The Revolt of the Engineers (1971). Engineers as reformers in early 20th-century America.
Stuart W. Leslie, Boss Kettering (1983). Biography of the famous inventor of the electric starter, among other things.
Stuart W. Leslie, The Cold War and American Science (1993).
Walter Licht, Working for the Railroad (1983). A labor-oriented history.
Karen Lucie, Charles Sheeler and the Cult of the Machine (1991). How an early 20th-century artist responded to the machine age.
Rachel Maines, The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction (1999).
Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden. A pathbreaking book about literary responses to technological change in 19th-century America. First published in 1964, but read the 2000 edition which includes an afterword by the author.
Patrick M. Malone, The Skulking Way of War (1991). How New England Indians adopted firearms and the implications it had for warfare in colonial America.
Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940 (1985).
Donald MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (1990). The development of missile guidance systems at Draper Labs. An important work, and an interesting perspective for anyone considering working in the defense industry.
Victor K. McElheny, Insisting on the Impossible (1998). Biography of Edwin Land, inventor of instant photography and founder of Polaroid.
Clay McShane, Down the Asphalt Path (1981). Autos in urban America.
Stephen Meyer, The Five Dollar Day (1981). About Henry Ford and his workers.
Douglas T. Miller, The Birth of Modern America, 1820-1850 (1970). A general history of the period.
David A. Mindell, War, Technology, and Experience Aboard U.S.S. Monitor (2000). Designing, operating, and popular understanding of the famous Civil War ironclad.
Thomas Misa, Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865–1925. (1995). A very readable history of the rise of the steel industry in late 19th-century America.
David F. Nye, Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880–1940. (1990).
Maureen Ogle, All the Modern Conveniences: American Household Plumbing, 1840-1890 (1996).
Robert C. Post, High Performance (1994). About top fuel dragsters.
Joseph W. Roe, English and American Tool Builders (1916). History of machine tools.
Kirkpatrick Sale, The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream (2001). Biography of Robert Fulton, artist and steamboat inventor.
Virginia Scharff, Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age (1991).
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: Trains and Travel in the 19th Century (1979).
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century (1988).
Seely, Bruce. Building the American Highway System (1987).
Carol Sheriff, The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862 (1996).
Mark M. Smith, Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery, and Freedom in the American South (1997).
Merritt Roe Smith, Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology (1977). Treats the origins of the “American system” of manufacturing and the responses to it.
Susan Smulyan, Selling Radio (1994).
Jacob Vander Meulen, Building the B-29 (1995). About the World War II Boeing B-29 bomber variety, an advanced aircraft best known for dropping the atomic bombs on Japan.
M. Mitchell Waldrop, The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution that Made Computing Personal (2001).
Anthony F.C. Wallace, Rockdale: The Growth of an American Village in the Early Industrial Revolution. (1978). Historical ethnography of a textile manufacturing community in southeastern Pennsylvania prior to the Civil War.
John H. White, John Bull (1981). White, a leading student of railroads, writes about an early locomotive that is on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. Whoever reviews this book should pay a visit to the “John Bull” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Lynn H. White, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962).
Richard White, The Organic Machine: The remaking of the Columbia River (1998). An environmental history.
G. Pascal Zachary, Endless Frontier (1997). Biography of MIT’s Vannevar Bush.