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Overview"'A Coca-Cola bottle, a Samurai sword, a Rolls-Royce, and a prehistoric stone tool are linked not only because they are projects of technology, but also because each is a symbol invested with meaning', writes historian Carroll Pursell. His adventurous and timely book takes the reader on a tour through history and around the lives, showing what machines can tell us about the world we want to have. ""White Heat"" explores a range of themes: technology's effect on our perceptions of time and space; its role in mass production theories that turn workers into interchangeable parts; its sanitizing of warfare with 'smart' weapons that kill more people more quickly; and, the psychological and social implications of the 'information age'. Pursell demonstrates these themes with absorbing anecdotes and provocative questions. How was the nineteenth-century boom in soap manufacturing related to standards of social morality? How does voice-mail encode certain cultural assumptions about gender and class? In revealing the ways that technological developments embody myth, ritual, and fantasies, Pursell shows that technology is as culturally specific, and as culturally illuminating, as art, literature, or any other work of the human imagination. Accessible and lively, with tales of quirks and mishaps, White Heat is for anyone caught up in our beeping, roaring, technologized world. ""White Heat"" was written to accompany a major eight-part television series, shown in the fall of 1994." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Carroll W. PursellPublisher: University of California Press Imprint: University of California Press Dimensions: Width: 19.00cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 24.80cm Weight: 0.628kg ISBN: 9780520089051ISBN 10: 0520089057 Pages: 224 Publication Date: 03 October 1994 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Out of Print Availability: Out of stock  Table of ContentsReviews"""One of Pursell's greatest strengths is his recognition of the many ironies of technology's evolution. . . . Another strength is his repeated attention to gender issues. . . . ""White Heat is a genuine contribution to technology studies.""--Howard P. Segal, ""Nature" One of Pursell's greatest strengths is his recognition of the many ironies of technology's evolution. . . . Another strength is his repeated attention to gender issues. . . . White Heat is a genuine contribution to technology studies. --Howard P. Segal, Nature Author InformationCarroll Pursell is Barry Davee Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University, and president of the Society for the History of Technology. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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