Americans today often associate scientific and technological
change with progress and personal well-being. Yet underneath our
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 postwar America and brings the
debate forward to show its relevance to modern readers.
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