Jennifer Karns Alexander
Biographic Data
| ID | 3768994 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer Karns Alexander |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer Karns |
| FAMILY NAME | Alexander |
| SIGNATURE | ALEXANDER J K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Technology in World Civilization
Reviewed by: Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History by Arnold Pacey and Francesca Bray Jennifer Karns Alexander (bio) Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History Revised and expanded edition. By Arnold Pacey and Francesca Bray. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021. Pp. 338. Arnold Pacey collaborates with Francesca Bray in a new edition of his classic survey, Technology in World Civilization (TWC). What a delight it is! …
An engineering career as industrial mission
British mechanical engineer Jack Keiser’s postwar career in industrial education was simultaneously a career in justice work and Christian industrial mission. This paper examines the Christian critique of industry Keiser developed early in his career, as he transitioned in 1949–1950 into his life’s work in firm-based industrial education, and asks how historians of technology might interpret a critique that characterized industry in hyperbolic te…
Introduction
Four vignettes, a preview of coming attractions. Note holy things, visions of God and community, and scaffolding, counterweights, and shoe leather: Wardiman Djojonegoro, trained engineer and Minist
The power to give credit and blame
Thinking Again about Science in Technology
How to characterize the relationship between science and technology has been a sensitive issue for historians of technology. This essay uses a recent and controversial piece by Paul Forman as a springboard for reexamining the concept of applied science and asks whether "applied science" remains a useful term. Scholars have often taken "applied science" to mean the subordination of technological knowledge to scientific knowledge-and thus the subor…
The Mantra of Efficiency
The Mantra of Efficiency
Efficiency - associated with individual discipline, superior management, and increased profits or productivity - often counts as one of the highest virtues in Western culture. But what does it mean, exactly, to be efficient? How did this concept evolve from a means for evaluating simple machines to the mantra of progress and a prerequisite for success?" "In this provocative and ambitious study, Jennifer Karns Alexander explores the growing power …
Efficiency and Pathology
At first glance, the Elmo-workstool seems unremarkable: it is just a chair (fig. 1). Developed between the world wars in the Elmowerk, the small electrical motors division of Siemens-Schuckertwerke, the Elmo-workstool has several features that are now standard in chairs marketed as "ergonomic," including its broad, scooped seat and its adjustable, curved backrest. The potential of the Elmo-workstool to increase worker efficiency and lessen fatigu…
Philadelphia's Enlightenment, 1740-1800
Philadelphia's Enlightenment, 1740-1800: Kingdom of Christ, Empire of Reason. By Nina Reid-Maroney. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. Pp. xv+199. $62.50
The line between potential and working machines
This paper examines mechanical drawings made between 1811 and 1835 by Cesar Nicolas Leblanc, draftsman and engraver for the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, for publication by the French patent ministry. It compares Leblanc's engravings with the original drawings of the same machines, drawings which mechanics and inventors had submitted with their patent applications and upon which Leblanc based his published copies. The paper further compares …
Planet Dora
Reviewed by: Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age * Jennifer Karns Alexander (bio) Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age. By Yves Béon. Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1997. Pp. xxxviii+250; illustrations, map, glossary. $30. From late August 1943 until early April 1945, some sixty thousand prisoners labored in the Nazi missile production program. At least one in three died. Many of …
Thinking Again about Science in Technology
How to characterize the relationship between science and technology has been a sensitive issue for historians of technology. This essay uses a recent and controversial piece by Paul Forman as a springboard for reexamining the concept of applied science and asks whether "applied science" remains a useful term. Scholars have often taken "applied science" to mean the subordination of technological knowledge to scientific knowledge-and thus the subor…
The line between potential and working machines
This paper examines mechanical drawings made between 1811 and 1835 by Cesar Nicolas Leblanc, draftsman and engraver for the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, for publication by the French patent ministry. It compares Leblanc's engravings with the original drawings of the same machines, drawings which mechanics and inventors had submitted with their patent applications and upon which Leblanc based his published copies. The paper further compares …
Planet Dora
Reviewed by: Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age * Jennifer Karns Alexander (bio) Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age. By Yves Béon. Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1997. Pp. xxxviii+250; illustrations, map, glossary. $30. From late August 1943 until early April 1945, some sixty thousand prisoners labored in the Nazi missile production program. At least one in three died. Many of …
Philadelphia's Enlightenment, 1740-1800
Philadelphia's Enlightenment, 1740-1800: Kingdom of Christ, Empire of Reason. By Nina Reid-Maroney. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. Pp. xv+199. $62.50
Efficiency and Pathology
At first glance, the Elmo-workstool seems unremarkable: it is just a chair (fig. 1). Developed between the world wars in the Elmowerk, the small electrical motors division of Siemens-Schuckertwerke, the Elmo-workstool has several features that are now standard in chairs marketed as "ergonomic," including its broad, scooped seat and its adjustable, curved backrest. The potential of the Elmo-workstool to increase worker efficiency and lessen fatigu…
The Mantra of Efficiency
The Mantra of Efficiency
Efficiency - associated with individual discipline, superior management, and increased profits or productivity - often counts as one of the highest virtues in Western culture. But what does it mean, exactly, to be efficient? How did this concept evolve from a means for evaluating simple machines to the mantra of progress and a prerequisite for success?" "In this provocative and ambitious study, Jennifer Karns Alexander explores the growing power …
The power to give credit and blame
Thinking Again about Science in Technology
How to characterize the relationship between science and technology has been a sensitive issue for historians of technology. This essay uses a recent and controversial piece by Paul Forman as a springboard for reexamining the concept of applied science and asks whether "applied science" remains a useful term. Scholars have often taken "applied science" to mean the subordination of technological knowledge to scientific knowledge-and thus the subor…
An engineering career as industrial mission
British mechanical engineer Jack Keiser’s postwar career in industrial education was simultaneously a career in justice work and Christian industrial mission. This paper examines the Christian critique of industry Keiser developed early in his career, as he transitioned in 1949–1950 into his life’s work in firm-based industrial education, and asks how historians of technology might interpret a critique that characterized industry in hyperbolic te…
Introduction
Four vignettes, a preview of coming attractions. Note holy things, visions of God and community, and scaffolding, counterweights, and shoe leather: Wardiman Djojonegoro, trained engineer and Minist
Technology in World Civilization
Reviewed by: Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History by Arnold Pacey and Francesca Bray Jennifer Karns Alexander (bio) Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History Revised and expanded edition. By Arnold Pacey and Francesca Bray. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021. Pp. 338. Arnold Pacey collaborates with Francesca Bray in a new edition of his classic survey, Technology in World Civilization (TWC). What a delight it is! …
Philosophy (6 works) · Engineering (5 works) · History (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Theology (4 works) · Art (3 works) · Art history (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Ancient history (2 works)