The American-ness of American Technology

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4020693
AutoresEugene S Ferguson (autor de correspondencia)
Año1979
Volumen20
Número1
Páginas3
Fecha de publicación1979-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTechnology and Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0040-165X • E-ISSN: 1097-3729
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3103109
OpenAlexW2316759351
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16

The development of technology in America is a totally improbable chapter in world history. Starting on the edge of an unknown continent, the new Americans within ten generations not only filled the continent and subdued it, but also reached out to change the rest of the world. The tools they brought with them to do the job were European; in the new land, old tools became new machines. Urged on by ideologies of mechanization and expansion, the tools of living grew in size and complexity until, in the eyes of the world, the most visible and compelling feature of the American nation was its technology. The strands of technology in the fabric of American history are broad, varied, and all-pervasive; yet we have hardly begun to explain why that is so. Because the products of technology have usually been valued in dollars and cents, the temptation is strong to assume that the appearance and spread of particular innovations can be explained simply in economic terms. The objection to this assumption is that the products of technology have other values that, in the eyes of technologists as well as consumers, may be more important than their monetary value. To plumb the murky depths of human motivation with measuring rods precisely calibrated in economic terms is to miss the strong romantic and emotional strain in the narrative of American involve

Political science · Sociology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Economic Development and Digital Transformation · History of Science and Medicine