INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF
TECHNOLOGY
STS.340
Spring 2001
Wednesdays, 7:00-10:00 PM, Room
E51-165
The history of technology encompasses artifacts, politics, knowledge,
work, innovation, control, failure, environmental interactions, social
values, and much more. Throughout this course we will use a variety
of texts to investigate different case studies, themes, and current
trends within this complex field.
We will meet nine times over the course of the semester and (with the
exception of the first meeting) discuss one book each class. This
syllabus lists supplementary articles and books that provide
background, additional insight, or a counterpoint to the main
reading. These extra readings are optional and should never take
time away from a careful reading of the main text. All main texts
are available at the MIT Coop and supplementary works are available at
MIT libraries.
Grading will be determined from class discussion and an email
"reaction paper" due at 6:00 PM on the Tuesday before each class.
These reactions will guide our class discussions and should be no
more than two or three pages long. They can include your questions,
comments, impressions, disagreements, and other thoughts regarding
the readings. Papers should be emailed to sts.340@mit.edu so all
class members can read them.
MEETING SCHEDULE AND READING LIST
We will meet either every week or every two weeks, based on the whims
of Bill and Jenny.
Introduction, discuss reading list and class schedule.
Class Two: February 14
Colonial American cultural contrasts; military technologies part I.
Reading: Patrick Malone, The Skulking Way of War: Technology and
Tactics Among the New England Indians (Madison Books, 1991)
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Malone's book.
Class Three: February 28
Technologies of control: management, labor, and slavery.
Reading: Mark Smith, Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery, and Freedom
in the American South (University of North Carolina Press, 1997)
Supplemental Readings:
- Charles Dew, Bond of Iron (W.W. Norton, 1994)
- William Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll; the World the
Slaves Made (Pantheon Books, 1974)
- Herbert G. Gutman, Work, Culture, and Society in
Industrializing America (Vintage, 1977), pp. 3-78 [the same essay also
appeared in the American Historical Review October 1973 volume]
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Smith's book.
Class Four: March 7
Technology and gender in a pre-industrial culture.
Reading: Francesca Bray, Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late
Imperial China (University of California Press, 1997)
Supplemental Readings:
- Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "The Industrial Revolution in the Home:
Household Technology and Social Change in the 20th Century," in
Technology and Culture 17 (Jan. 1976): 1-23.
- Dorothea Schmidt, "Female Guest in a Manly World," in History
and Technology 14 no. 1-2 (1998) pp. 147-157.
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Bray's book.
Relevant Links, courtesy of "Silkworm" Sandy:
Class Five: March 21
The technology frontier: interactions between society and the natural
environment.
Reading: William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great
West (W.W. Norton, 1991)
Supplemental Readings:
- Frederick Jackson Turner, The Frontier in American
History (Dover, 1996) (Many other published versions)
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Cronon's book.
Relevant Links, courtesy of "Sauntering" Sandy:
Class Six: April 4
Consumer culture and rural transportation systems.
Reading: Ronald R. Kline, Consumers in the Country: Technology and
Social Change in Rural America (Johns Hopkins University Press,
2000)
Supplemental readings:
- James J. Flink, Three Stages of American Automobile
Consciousness
- James J. Flink, The Automobile Age (MIT Press, 1988)
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Kline's book.
Relevant Links, courtesy of "Rural" Rob:
Class Seven: April 11
Narratives of innovation.
Reading: Paul Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention (John Wiley
& Sons, 1998)
Supplemental readings:
- The Smithsonian Book of Invention (New York:
W.W. Norton, 1978)
- Thomas P. Hughes, "Inventors: the problems they choose, the
ideas they have, and the inventions they make," in Technological
Innovation: A Critical Review of Current Knowledge eds. Patrick
Kelly and Melvin Kranzberg (San Francisco, 1978) pages 166-182.
- Nathan Rosenberg, "Technological Innovation and Natural
Resources: the Niggardliness of Nature Reconsidered," in
Technological Innovation: A Critical Review of Current Knowledge
eds. Patrick Kelly and Melvin Kranzberg (San Francisco, 1978) pages
183-197.
- David Noble, America by Design (Oxford University Press, 1979)
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Israel's book.
Relevant Links, courtesy of "Researcher" Rob:
Class Eight: April 25
Large technological systems; military technologies part II.
Reading: Thomas P. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus (Vintage, 2000)
Supplemental Readings:
- Stuart Leslie, The Cold War and American Science (Columbia
University Press, 1994)
- Merritt Roe Smith, Military Enterprise and Technological
Change (MIT Press, 1985)
- Wiebe Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, and Trevor J. Pinch, The Social
Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and
History of Technology (MIT Press, 1987)
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Hughes' book.
Relevant Links, courtesy of "R&D" Rob:
Class Nine: May 9 <-- note the "nine" vs. "9" symmetry
Case study: the built environment.
Reading: Gail Cooper, Air Conditioning America: Engineers and the
Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (Johns Hopkins University Press,
1998)
Supplemental Readings:
- Rob Martello, Have a great summer (Go on Vacation
Press, 2001)
Click here if you would like to read selected
student responses to Cooper's book.
Relevant Links, courtesy of "Reconditioned" Rob:
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