American Genesis: A Century Of Invention And Technological Enthusiasm

American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm

From Library JournalThis history of technology, covering a century of remarkable activity, starts off with the independent inventors--Edison, Bell, Sperry, and the Wrights. The author delves into their motivations and methods and sheds light on how they selected problems to be solved. The history then progresses to the larger, more complex innovations, including electrical power distribution systems and Ford's assembly plants. A fascinating section deals with the Soviet Union's exploitation of America's know-how, especially in scientific management, as developed by Frederick W. Taylor, Frank Gilbreth, and Henry Gantt. More recent and complicated systems approaches, as represented by the TVA program, the Manhattan Project, as well as other military and space programs, are also discussed. A final chapter surveys the disappointments with technology, as articulated by Lewis Mumford, Jacques Ellul, Henry Marcuse, and others. A well-rounded, if a bit plodding, survey of 100 truly monumental years.- Daniel LaRossa, Connetquot P.L., Bohemia, N.Y.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.Traces the history of the American aptitude for invention and technology, from the development of the incandescent light and the radio through to the Manhattan Project and the space programFrom Publishers WeeklyThis potentially interesting yet turgidly written sociological study argues that the fertile era of technological innovation in America, which produced the electric light, the telephone, the automobile and the airplane, among other wonders, is better understood as a period of system building than of invention. A professor of the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania, Hughes begins by analyzing the careers of a dozen independent inventors, including Edison and the Wright Brothers as well as the less famous Lee De Forest and Edwin Armstrong (who vied for patents on the vacuum tube). He goes on to describe the gigantic systems their inventions generated, in the U.S., Europe and even the Soviet Union--the electric utilities, the gasoline-fueled automobile industry, broadcasting, aviation and the rest of the military-industrial complex. Hughes's extensive research has turned up a wealth of detail about the history of engineering and technology, but because he jumps back and forth between innovators and systems builders to work out his sociological theories (rather than choosing a few critical examples and then telling those stories in depth), the book seems destined more for sociologists than a general audience.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.