The Engineer in History by John Rae, Rudi Volti

1028 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Tramp character invented by Charlie Chaplin (who directed the tech­ nological spoof Modern Times) to sell its products and laugh at the absurdities resulting when Infomart asks customers to visit Dallas to see displays of hardware and software designed to obviate the need for travel, but the account here suggests an insufficient appreciation of, well, the entertainment value of technology. In a capitalist econ­ omy that turns every idea into a commodity, amusement seems as good a role for technology as any other. The more serious problem, however, is that these frequently in­ sightful, previously published essays remain disjointed. Segal’s earlier Technological Utopianism in American Culture (1985) was persuasive be­ cause it was systematic, almost exhaustive. Here, only the weakest pieces (the museum reviews) most clearly advance the very thesis—that Whiggery is best understood as commodification and entertainment— that is supposed to unify the others. More to the point, perhaps, aside from hyperbolic contemporaries like Alvin Toffler and John Naisbitt, both of whom Segal effectively trashes, few will disagree with the con­ tention that the effects of technology are ambiguous. Joseph W. Slade Dr. Slade is coeditor (with Judith Y. Lee) ofBeyond the Two Cultures: Essays on Science, Technology, and Literature (1990), and the author of Thomas Pynchon (1974, 1990) and several dozen articles on literature, technology, Him, and television. The Engineer in History. By John Rae and Rudi Void. New York: Peter Lang, 1993. Pp. vii + 267; notes, index. $49.95. The potential audience for this book is not identified, but it exactly meets the basic requirements of a one-semester course in humanities in an engineering degree program. By basic requirements I include its title, chapter lengths, provision of footnotes, and readable style. The main difficulty facing a reviewer is the book’s lack of currency. It appears to have been almost completed at the time of John Rae’s death in 1988. There are no effective references after that date. The only later references are suggestions for further reading made in Rudi Volti’s introduction. My comments are thus influenced by the benefit of five years’ hindsight between the end of authorship and publication. The title is slightly misleading. The introduction is followed by eleven chapters, each around twenty-one pages long and accompa­ nied by an average of fifty-nine notes occupying three more pages. The first seven chapters are a comfortable chronology of engineering endeavor, describing its place and selected characters in great civiliza­ tions from the past, followed by European achievements and Ameri­ can ascendancy leading up to the present century. In the subsequent chapters the book considers the attributes of engineers in the most recent century. This includes social origins, education, relationships with employers and government, and how engineers are regarded TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1029 in communities and societies. Chapter 9 is devoted to engineers as managers. It tackles the myth that working as a manager is a betrayal of an engineering ethos. David Noble’s “modern management was the product of engineers functioning as managers” (p. 189) is quoted. Only technicians can find self-justification in craftsmanship alone, but dedicating three pages to the obsessive F. W. Taylor, who is used to personify engineering interest in systematic management or, as it was then known, Scientific Management, is perhaps too much. The main issue for the reviewer of such a highly condensed book is the appropriateness of the omissions. One significant omission is reference to the changes in the technical market, the great technoeconomic paradigm shifts that relate to Kondratieff long waves, which engineers both respond to and sometimes influence. The book makes little reference to political economists or philosophers, except for a passing reference to Adam Smith, a quote from Lenin in the three pages dedicated to the Soviet experience, and slightly more space assigned to Thorstein Veblen’s now almost-forgotten Technocracy movement. Herbert Hoover is only referred to for his part in translating Agricola. Others missing are owners and managers who provided a model for commercially minded engineers. Nineteenthcentury omissions include Robert Owen, Armstrong, Singer, the Sie­ mens brothers, Carnegie, Nobel, Krupp. Twentieth-century omis­ sions include Ford, Sloan, Urquhart

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