ENGLISH

Does Technology Drive History?: Dilemma of Technological Determinism

By Merritt Roe Smith (editor) , Leo Marx (editor)

Book information

Publisher
MIT Press
Year
1994
ISBN
0262691671, 9780262691673
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
21 MB (21974044 bytes)
Pages
298\299
Time added
2020-07-27 17:48:53

Description

These thirteen essays explore a crucial historical questionthat has been notoriously hard to pin down: To what extent,and by what means, does a society's technology determine itspolitical, social, economic, and cultural forms? These thirteen essays explore a crucial historical question that has been notoriously hard to pin down: To what extent, and by what means, does a society's technology determine its political, social, economic, and cultural forms? Karl Marx launched the modern debate on determinism with his provocative remark that "the hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist," and a classic article by Robert Heilbroner (reprinted here) renewed the debate within the context of the history of technology. This book clarifies the debate and carries it forward.Marx's position has become embedded in our culture, in the form of constant reminders as to how our fast-changing technologies will alter our lives. Yet historians who have looked closely at where technologies really come from generally support the proposition that technologies are not autonomous but are social products, susceptible to democratic controls. The issue is crucial for democratic theory. These essays tackle it head-on, offering a deep look at all the shadings of determinism and assessing determinist models in a wide variety of historical contexts. Dedication Contents Introduction • Leo Marx and Merritt Roe Smith Technological Determinism in American Culture • Merritt Roe Smith Recourse of Empire: Landscapes of Progress in Technological America • Michael L. Smith Do Machines Make History ? • Robert L. Heilbroner Technological Determinism Revisited • Robert L. Heilbroner Technological Momentum • Thomas P. Hughes Retrieving Sociotechnical Change from Technological Determinism • Thomas J. Misa Determinism and Indeterminacy in the History of Technology • Philip Scranton Technological Determinism in Agrarian Societies • Peter C. Perdue Determinism and Pre-Industrial Technology • Richard W, Bulliet The Political and Feminist Dimensions of Technological Determinism • Rosalind Williams The Idea of “Technology” and Postmodern Pessimism • Leo Marx Rationality versus Contingency in the History of Technology • John M. Staudenmaier Contributors Index

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