Research Guides: ENGR 2362, History of American Technology: ENGR 2362 (OSU Libraries)

ENGR 2362 (OSU Libraries)

Course e-Books

Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology by Merritt Roe Smith Table of Contents

Frontmatterpage N/A
Introductionpage 17
Chapter 1: Regional Interests and Military Needs: Founding the "Mother Arsenal," 1794-1801page 24
Chapter 2: The Craft Origins of Production, 1798-1816page 52
Chapter 3: Production, Labor, and Management, 1801-1816page 69
Chapter 4: Early Manufacturing Techniquespage 85
Chapter 5: Cooperation between the Armories, 1815-1829page 104
Chapter 6: James Stubblefield: Virginia Entrepreneur, 1815-1829page 140
Chapter 7: John H. Hall: Yankee in the Garden, 1819-1841page 184
Chapter 8: Hall and the American System, 1824-1840page 219
Chapter 9: Politics and Technology, 1829-1859page 252
Chapter 10: The Community in Crisis, 1859-1861page 305
Chapter 11: Cultural Conditions and Technological Change: In Retrospectpage 323
Bibliographypage 349
Index357
Publication Date: 1977-01-01
Electrifying America by David E. Nye Winner, Abel Wolman award given by the Public Works Historical Society and American Public Works Association, 1990. and Winner of the 1993 Edelstein Prize sponsored by the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) How did electricity enter everyday life in America? Using Muncie, Indiana - the Lynds' now iconic Middletown - as a touchstone, David Nye explores how electricity seeped into and redefined American culture. With an eye for telling details from archival sources and a broad understanding of cultural and social history, he creates a thought-provoking panorama of a technology fundamental to modern life. Emphasizing the experiences of ordinary men and women rather than the lives of inventors and entrepreneurs, Nye treats electrification as a set of technical possibilities that were selectively adopted to create the streetcar suburb, the amusement park, the "Great White Way," the assembly line, the electrified home, and the industrialized farm. He shows how electricity touched every part of American life, how it became an extension of political ideologies, how it virtually created the image of the modern city, and how it even pervaded colloquial speech, confirming the values of high energy and speed that have become hallmarks of the twentieth century. He also pursues the social meaning of electrification as expressed in utopian ideas and exhibits at world's fairs, and explores the evocation of electrical landscapes in painting, literature, and photography. Electrifying America combines chronology and topicality to examine the major forms of light and power as they came into general use. It shows that in the city electrification promoted a more varied landscape and made possible new art forms and new consumption environments. In the factory, electricity permitted a complete redesign of the size and scale of operations, shifting power away from the shop floor to managers. Electrical appliances redefined domestic work and transformed the landscape of the home, while on the farm electricity laid the foundation for today's agribusiness.
Publication Date: 1990-11-29