Early American Technology: Making and Doing Things from the Colonial Era to 1850 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080782173X ISBN 13: 9780807821732

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994

Synopsis

This collection of original essays documents technology’s centrality to the history of early America. Unlike much previous scholarship, this volume emphasizes the quotidian rather than the exceptional: the farm household seeking to preserve food or acquire tools, the surveyor balancing economic and technical considerations while laying out a turnpike, the woman of child-bearing age employing herbal contraceptives, and the neighbors of a polluted urban stream debating issues of property, odor, and health. These cases and others drawn from brewing, mining, farming, and woodworking enable the authors to address recent historiographic concerns, including the environmental aspects of technological change and the gendered nature of technical knowledge. Brooke Hindle’s classic 1966 essay on early American technology is also reprinted, and his view of the field is reassessed. A bibliographical essay and summary of Hindle’s bibliographic findings conclude the volume. The contributors are Judith A. McGaw, Robert C. Post, Susan E. Klepp, Michal McMahon, Patrick W. O'Bannon, Sarah F. McMahon, Donald C. Jackson, Robert B. Gordon, Carolyn C. Cooper, and Nina E. Lerman.

About this title

Review

A fitting tribute to Brooke Hindle's scholarship and influence on the field of the history of technology.Merritt Roe Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology This is a badly needed book. . . . Historians of technology will especially welcome these essays.Joyce E. Chaplin, Vanderbilt University [An] excellent collection of essays in early American technological history."Choice" An excellent collection of essays in early American technological history."Choice" "A fitting tribute to Brooke Hindle's scholarship and influence on the field of the history of technology.Merritt Roe Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology" An excellent book . . . anyone interested in early American technology and society will find it enjoyable and instructive."Winterthur Portfolio" "This is a badly needed book. . . . Historians of technology will especially welcome these essays.Joyce E. Chaplin, Vanderbilt University" A well-done and provocative book."Technology and Culture"

Synopsis

A collection of original essays that documents technology's centrality to the history of early America. Emphasizing the quotidian rather than the exceptional brewing, mining, farming, and woodworking the essays enable the authors to address recent historiographical concerns, including the environmental aspects of technological change and the gender

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080782173X
• ISBN 13: 9780807821732
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 494
• Editor: McGaw Judith A.