A Companion to American Technology

By Carroll Pursell

A Companion to American Technology is a groundbreaking collection of original essays that analyze the hard-to-define phenomenon of “technology” in America.

• 22 original essays by expert scholars cover the most important features of American technology, including developments in automobiles, television, and computing
• Analyzes the ways in which technologies are organized, such as in the engineering profession, government, medicine and agriculture
• Includes discussions of how technologies interact with race, gender, class, and other organizing structures in American society

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Apr 30, 2008
• ISBN: 9780470695333

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Reviews for A Companion to American Technology

[darthdeverell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read Bruce Sinclair's essay, “The Profession of Engineering in America." Describing engineers‘ desire for respectability, Sinclair writes, “On any number of occasions, engineers rehearsed the old joke about doctors who buried their mistakes, and lawyers who argued cases they did not believe in, in order to claim for their profession that it was the only one true to itself. What this piece of humor reveals is that they felt themselves underappreciated, that they were in denial about the status differences conveyed by postgraduate education, and that while they might wish for the character of scientists, they worked in the culture of business.” (pg. 368) Furthermore, “Despite whatever concerns early engineers may have had about professional ideals, and the relation of their work to them, there was never any doubt in the public mind about the grandeur of these enterprises. Or about their implications for the nation.” (pg. 368)