Industry and Technology THE AUTHOR
Christopher Clark grew up in the London area and obtained his Ph.D. in history at Harvard University. He taught at University of York and University of Warwick. He is a specialist in 18th and 19th North American and United States social and cultural history. Some of his books are: Social change in America from the Revolution to the Civil War andThe Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts . This power point is based on his article, Industry and Technology in the book, A New Introduction to American Studies.
World’s Attention to the U.S:
Ø Political system and ideologies
Ø Technological leader and industrial power
The overwhelming rural and agrarian society of some poor colonies changed to an industrial power.
Archetypal modern society
Useful knowledge, practical ingenuity
Franklin, Whitney, Morse
* Early focus on machines, later social, cultural and political context.
* Communications between: towns and country, farms and factories, nature and machines.
Colonies to civil war:
Iron production, urban crafts trades, ship building
Revolution: industrial development
After revolution:
1. Transferring of technologies to America from abroad
2. The development of new techniques within the borders
American Industrial Revolution
* Faster and more flexible Americans
* Guns and clocks
* More machines then more systematic development
Ø Machine development: migration, population less than land, labor shortage, capital scarcity, coordination of several producers + inventive men and women
Ø Yankee ingenuity versus South slavery
From Civil War to Great Crash
~ Link between agriculture and manufacturing, more mechanization
~ Turning point
~ Specialism, interchangeable parts, standardization, skilled and unskilled workers
~ Far from the work- bench controlling
~ Fordism
~ http://www.hfmgv.org/about/default.asp
* The boss’s brain under the workman’s hat
* The clock, the machine of modern age
* Automobile and wireless transmission
* Growing markets for consumption
* Electric power
* Progressive movements
* R&D
* Laboratories
* Private enterprise
The business of the United States is business.
Government +Industry +Military partnership
Military strength+ Economic prosperity
Land, Water and Air power
The Second World War
A Post Modern Era
• Giant leap for mankind
• Bioscience and biotechnology
• Communication of information
• Knowledge and data as raw materials
• Atomic technology
• Globalization
• Americanization
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…
Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
http://www.news.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
http://www.census.gov/epcd/
www/naics.html
No comments:
Post a Comment