American Technology

Carroll Pursell is Adeline Barry Davee Professor and Chair of the History Department at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of White Heat: People and Technology (1994) and The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology (1995), and the editor of Technology in America: A History of Individuals and Ideas (second edition, 1990).

Series Editor's Preface. Introduction.

1. Introduction.

"So Much Depends Upon a Red Wheelbarrow: Agricultural Tool Ownership in the Eighteenth-Century Mid-Atlantic": Judith A. McGaw.

Document: Selections from American Colonial Wealth: Documents and Methods: Alice Hanson Jones.

Further Reading.

2. Introduction.

Dam-Breaking in the 19th-Century Merrimack Valley: Water, Social Conflict, and the Waltham-Lowell Mills: Theodore L. Steinberg.

Documents A: Winnipissiogee Lake Company v. Worster.

Document B: Great Falls Manufacturing Company v. Worster.

Further Reading.

3. Introduction.

Working Environments: An Ecological Approach to Industrial Health and Safety: Arthur F. McEvoy.

Document A: Nicholas Farwell vs. The Boston and Worster Rail Road Corporation.

Document B: Edison L. Bowers, Is It Safe to Work? A Study of Industrial Accidents.

Document C: Edward J. Beshada et al. V. Johns-Manville Products Corporation.

Further Reading.

4. Introduction.

Socially Camouflaged Technologies: The Case of the Electromechanical Vibrator: Rachel Maines.

Documents A: U.S. Patent No. 175,202, dated March 21, 1876, granted to George H. Taylor for an "Improvement in Medical Rubbing Apparatus.".

Document B: M[ary] L.H. Arnold Snow, Mechanical Vibration and Its Therapeutic Application.

Document C: Moble M. Eberhart, A Brief Guide to Vibratory Technique.

Document D: A. Dale Covey, Profitable Office Specialtie.

Document E: "Enjoy Life!", as for White Cross Vibrator.

Further Reading.

5. Introduction.

Local History and National Culture: Notions on Engineering Professionalism in America: Bruce Sinclair.

Document A: J.A.L. Waddell, "Some Notes on Vocational Guidance".

Document B: J.P.H. Perry, "New York Engineers' Successful Efforts to Relieve Unemployment".

Further Reading.

6. Introduction.

Out of the Barns and into the Kitchens: Transformations in Farm Women's Work in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Christine Kleinegger.

Document A: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Social and Labor Needs of Farm Women, Report No. 1903.

Document B: Guy E. Tripp, Electric Development as an Aid to Agriculture.

Document C: Newell Leroy Sims, Elements of Rural Sociology.

Further Reading.

7. Introduction.

Advertising the Atom: Michael Smith.

Document A: U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Atomic Power Development and Private Enterprise.

Document B: U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Environmental Effects of Producing Electric Power, Hearings.

Document C: U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Energy Conservation and Power.

Further Reading.

8. Introduction.

Race and Technology: African American Women in the Bell System, 1945-1980: Venus Green.

Documents A: Cover, The Telephone Review.

Document B: Table 8-1.

Further Reading.

9. Introduction.

The Rise and Fall of the Appropriate Technology Movement in the United States, 1965-1985: Carroll Pursell.

Documents A: Harry S. Truman, "Technical Assistance for the Underdeveloped Areas of the World".

Document B: State of California, Press Release, "Office of Appropriate Technology: Purpose, Organization, and Activities," June, 1976.

Document C: State of California, logo of Office of Appropriate Technology.

Document D: U.S. Department of Energy, National Center for Appropriate Technology, "An Introduction and a History".

Document E: Allen L. Hammond and William D. Metz, "Solar Energy Research: Making Solar After the Nuclear Model?".

Further Reading.

10. Introduction.

Hacking Away at the Counterculture: Andrew Ross.

Further Reading.

Index.