Readings

Below are a bibliography of required texts, course readings and viewings by session, and a list of acceptable books for review.


Required Texts

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. A Social History of American Technology. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.

Smith, Merritt Roe, and Gregory Clancey, eds. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

Bibliography of Course Readings and Viewings

SES # TOPICS READINGS VIEWINGS 1 Introduction Film: A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama. 2 What is Technology? Smith, and Clance. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. xiii-xv (preface) and 2-15 (Marx, Winner, and MacKenzie essays). Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 1-4 and 201-218. 3 Technologies of Colonization and Conquest Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 26-60. Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 5-27. 4 Crafts and Craftsmanship in Early America Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 28-65 (pp. 61-102 are optional). Film: The Colonial Gunsmith. (Williamsburg) 5 Homespun, Guns, and Shovels: Artifacts from a Transitional Age 6 Politics and Early American Industrialization Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 103-142. Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 67-91. 7 Textiles, Firearms, and the Role of the State in Early American Industry 8 Social and Political Implications of the New Technology Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 144-189. 9 The Transportation Revolution Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 93-118. Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 191-221-232. 10 Art and Industrialization Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 208-218. Also read Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, The Celestial Railroad. (PDF) 11 The Emerging Culture of Engineering Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 119-147. Smith, M. R. Becoming Engineers. Film: The Iron Road. 12 Technology, Civil War, and the Rise of Big Business Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 149-171-199. Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 234-263. 13 Film: Brooklyn Bridge. 14 Human Machines? Taylorism Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 267-311. Film: Clockwork. 15 Automobility and Mass Production Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 221-248. Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 313-354. 16 Autos, Trucks, and American Culture 17 Film: Modern Tomes. (1936, with Charles Chaplin) 18 Hobbyist Worlds and Modern America Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 355-382 and 510-515. 19 Aeronautics and the Systems Approach Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 249-256. 20 World War II: A Technological Turning Point? Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 256-270. 21 Film: The Day After Trinity. 22 A New World: Technology in Coldwar America Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 427-469. 23 Computers and Control Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 471-496 and 516-518. Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 273-299. Also read: Noble, David. Social Choice in Machine Design. Film: Automation. (with Edward R. Murrow, 1957) 24 Nature's Revenge Smith, and Clancey. Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Pp. 301-327 and 384-426. Cowan. Social History of American Technology. Pp. 301-327. Film: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. 25 Technology and Popular Culture 26 Technology and Terrorism: Sept. 11 Film: MIT Teach-in.

List of Acceptable Books for Review

Aitken, Hugh G. J. Taylorism at Watertown Arsenal. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
A study of the introduction of scientific management at a government arsenal near here and the controversies it raised. This book also was re-issued in 1984 under the title Scientific Management in Action. Originally published in 1960.

Biggs, Lindy. The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology, and Work in America's Age of Mass Production. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Bruce, Robert V. Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude. New York: Cornell University Press, 1990. 
Biography, originally published in 1973.

Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray. Computer. Basic Books, 1996.
The spread of computer culture since the 1970s.

Cochran, Thomas C. Frontiers of Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
A business historian's perspective on early industrialization. Originally published in 1981.

Cooper, Gail. Air-Conditioning in America: Engineers and the Controlled Environment, 1900-1960. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
The standard work on the subject. Originally published in 1998.

Cowan, Ruth S. More Work for Mother. Basic Books, 1985.
Re. Gender and Technology. A classic. Originally published in 1983.

Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. W.W. Norton & Company, 1991.
An important study of how Chicago became the "metropolis" of the West.

Dew, Charles. Bond of Iron. W.W., Norton & Company, 1995.
The lives and labors of slave ironworkers in the Great Valley of Virginia.

Dublin, Thomas. Women at Work. 2nd Edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
About women textile workers at Lowell. Originally published in 1979.

Dunlavy, Colleen A. Politics and Industrialization. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994.
A comparative study of American and German railroads in the 19th century (with emphasis on the role of the state).

Edwards, Paul N. The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.

Ellis, John. A Social History of the Machine Gun. Ayer Company Publishers, 1975.

Ferguson, Eugene S. Engineering and the Mind’s Eye. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992.
Among other things, the artistic side of engineering.

Fitzgerald, Deborah K. The Business of Breeding: Hybrid Corn in Illinois 1890-1940. Cornell University Press, 1990.

Gordon Robert B., and Patrick M. Malone. The Texture of Industry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
An important treatment of the material culture and archeology of 19th-century industrialization.

Graham, Loren R. The Ghost of the Executed Engineer. Harvard University Press, 1993.
A fascinating study about a Soviet engineer who was imprisoned and executed for speaking out against the government.

Headrick, Daniel. The Tools of Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
A non-American book about technology and imperialism in the 19th century.

Hounshell, David A. From the American System to Mass Production. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
A definitive study of the origins of interchangeable manufacturing and mechanization of industry, culminating with the mass production of the Model T Ford.

Hughes, Thomas P. American Genesis. Random House Value Publishers, 1989.
A general survey of technology in America from the 1870s to the 1970s.

———. Rescuing Prometheus. Vintage, 1998.
A history of large engineering projects in the United States since World War II.

Hunter, Louis C. Steamboats on Western Rivers. Dover Publications, 1994.
The definitive work on steamboating on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Be forewarned, however, it is a big book! Originally published in 1949.

Hurt, R. Douglas. American Farm Tools. Sunflower University Press, 1982.
A study that covers everything from plows to steam engines.

Isenberg, Andrew C. The Destruction of the Bison. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Israel, Paul. Edison. John Whiley & Sons, 1998.
A prize-winning biography.

———. From Machine Shop to Industrial Laboratory. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
How research and development in the early telegraph industry became increasingly scientific.

Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Kanigel, Robert. The One Best Way. Little Brown Company, 1997.
Biography of Frederick W. Taylor.

Kasson, John F. Civilizing the Machine. Hill & Wang Publishers, 1976.
Technology, politics, and culture in 19thcentury America.

Laurie, Bruce. Artisans into Workers. Hill & Wang Publishers, 1989.
A labor historian's perspective on the industrial revolution.

Layton, Edwin T. The Revolt of the Engineers. Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1971.
Engineers as reformers in early 20th-century America.

Leslie, Stuart W. Boss Kettering. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Bio of the famous inventor of the electric starter, among other things.

———. The Cold War and American Science. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

Licht, Walter. Working for the Railroad. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983.
A labor-oriented history.

Lucie, Karen. Charles Sheeler and the Cult of the Machine. Harvard University Press, 1991.
How an early 20th century artist responded to the machine age.

Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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 afterward by the author.

Malone, Patrick M. The Skulking Way of War. Madison Books, 1991.
How New England Indians adopted firearms and the implications it had for warfare in colonial America.

Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream. University of California Press, 1985.
A classic study of modern advertising.

MacKenzie, Donald. Inventing Accuracy. MIT Press, 1990.
The development of missile guidance systems at Draper Labs. One of the best books in the field.

McElheny, Victor K. Insisting on the Impossible. Perseus Publishing, 1998.
Biography of Edwin Land, inventor of instant photography and founder of Polaroid.

McShane, Clay. Down the Asphalt Path. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Autos in urban America. Originally published in 1981.

Meyer, Stephen. The Five Dollar Day. State University of New York Press, 1981.
About Henry Ford and his workers.

Miller, Douglas T. The Birth of Modern America, 1820-1850. Macmillan Publishing Company, 1970.
A general history of the period.

Mindell, David A. War, Technology, and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

———. Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
The best book in existence on the pre-history of modern computing. Mindell is a member of MIT’s STS faculty.

Misa, Thomas. Nation of Steel. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
About the rise of the steel industry in late 19th-century America. The best book on the subject.

Nye, David F. Electrifying America. MIT Press, 1990.
A cultural historian’s perspective on the subject.

Ogle, Maureen. All the Modern Conveniences: American Household Plumbing, 1840-1890. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Post, Robert C. High Performance. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
About top fuel dragsters.

Roe, Joseph W. English and American Tool Builders. Lindsay Publications Inc., 2001.
History of machine tools. Originally published in 1916.

Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream. Free Press, 2001.
Biography of Robert Fulton, artist and steamboat inventor.

Scharff, Virginia. Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age. University of New Mexico Press, 1991.

Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. The Railway Journey: Trains and Travel in the 19th Century. Berg Publishers Limited, 1979.

———. Disenchanted Night. University of California Press, 1988.

Sheriff, Carol. The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862. Hill & Wang Publishers, 1996.

Smith, Mark M. Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery, and Freedom in the American South. University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Smith, Merritt Roe. Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology. Cornell University Press, 1977.
Treats the origins of the "American system" of manufacturing and the responses to it.

Smulyan, Susan. Selling Radio. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Insitution Press, 1994.

Meulen, Jacob Vander. Building the B-29. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Insitution Press, 1995.

Vincenti, Walter. What Engineers Know and How They Know It. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
An eminent aeronautical engineer’s perspective on the history of engineering.

Waldrop, M. Mitchell. The Dream Machine: J. C. R. Licklider and the Revolution that Made Computing Personal. Penguin USA, 2001.

Wallace, Anthony F. C. Rockdale. Random House, 1978.
Historical enthnography of a textile manufacturing community in southeastern Pennsylvania prior to the Civil War.

White, John H. John Bull. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Insitution Press, 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.

White, Lynn H. Jr. Medieval Technology and Social Change. Clarendon Press, 1962.

White, Richard. The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River. Hill & Wang Publishers, 1998.
An environmental history.

Zachary, G. Pascal. Endless Frontier. Free Press, 1997.
Biography of MIT's Vannevar Bush.