Overview

Americans today often associate scientific and technological change with progress and personal well-being. Yet underneath these confident assumptions lie serious questions. In ""Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs?"", Amy Sue Bix locates the origins of this confusion in the Great Depression, when social and economic crisis forced many Americans to re-examine ideas about science, technology, and progress. Growing fear of ""technological unemployment"" - the idea that increasing mechanization displaced human workers - prompted widespread talk about the meaning of progress in the new Machine Age. In response, promoters of technology mounted a powerful public relations campaign: in advertising, writings, speeches, and World Fair exhibits, company leaders and prominent scientists and engineers insisted that mechanization ultimately would ensure American happiness and national success. Emphasizing the cultural context of the debate, Bix concentrates on public perceptions of work and technological change: the debate over mechanization turned on ideology, on the way various observers in the 1930s interpreted the relationship between technology and American progress. Although similar concerns arose in other countries, Bix highlights what was unique about the American response: ""Discussion about workplace change,"" she argues, ""became entwined with particular musings about the meaning of American history, the western frontier, and a sense of national destiny"". In her concluding chapters and epilogue, Bix shows how the issue changed during World War II and in post-war America and brings the debate forward to show its relevance to modern readers.

Full Product Details

Author:   Amy Sue Bix (Iowa State University)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Edition:   New edition
Volume:   17
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.612kg
ISBN:  

9780801869136

ISBN 10:   0801869137
Pages:   392
Publication Date:   29 March 2002
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments Prologue: Technolocy as Progress? Chapter 1. ""Economy of a Madhouse"": Entering the Depression-Era Debate over Technological Unemployment Chapter 2. ""Finding Jobs Faster Than Invention Can Take Them Away"": Government's Role in the Technological Unemployment Debate Chapter 3. ""No Power on Earth Can Stop Improved Machinery"": Labor's Concern about Displacement Chapter 4. ""Machinery Don't Eat"": Displacement as a theme in Depression Culture Chapter 5. ""The Machine Has Been Libeled"": The Business Community's Defense Chapter 6. ""Innocence or Guilt of Science"": Scientists and Engineers Mobilize to Justify Mechanization Chapter 7. ""What Will the Smug Machine Age Do?"": Envisioning Past, Present, and Future as America moves from Depression to War Chapter 8. ""Automation Just Killed Us"": The Displacement Question in Postwar America Epilogue: Revisiting the Technological Unemployment Debate Notes Essay on Sources Index"

Reviews

<p>This excellent study examines the multiple strands of concern about the threat to employment posed by mechanisation and automation, with the primary focus being on attitudes during the 1930s.--M. J. French Business History

<p> Amy Bix's fine book, carefully researched and gracefully written, surveys the extent of everyday hardship during the Great Depression. She concentrates on the debates over technological unemployment in the United States, debates that were 'entwined with particular musings about the meaning of American history, the western frontier, and a sense of national destiny.'. -- Ester Fano, Technology and Culture

Author Information

Amy Sue Bix is an associate professor of history at Iowa State University.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions