|
Showing 1 - 10 of
10 matches in All Departments
This title was first published in 2011.After World War II, a
systems approach to solving complex problems and managing complex
systems came into vogue among engineers, scientists, and managers,
fostered in part by the diffusion of digital computing
power.Enthusiasm for the approach peaked during the Johnson
administration, when it was applied to everything from military
command and control systems to poverty in American cities. Although
its failure in the social sphere, coupled with increasing
skepticism about the role of technology and "experts" in American
society, led to a retrenchment, systems methods are still part of
modern managerial practice.
This title was first published in 2011.After World War II, a
systems approach to solving complex problems and managing complex
systems came into vogue among engineers, scientists, and managers,
fostered in part by the diffusion of digital computing
power.Enthusiasm for the approach peaked during the Johnson
administration, when it was applied to everything from military
command and control systems to poverty in American cities. Although
its failure in the social sphere, coupled with increasing
skepticism about the role of technology and "experts" in American
society, led to a retrenchment, systems methods are still part of
modern managerial practice.
To most people, technology has been reduced to computers, consumer
goods, and military weapons; we speak of "technological progress"
in terms of RAM and CD-ROMs and the flatness of our television
screens. In "Human-Built World," thankfully, Thomas Hughes restores
to technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by
chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential
Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character
but who also explored its creative potential.
Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and
architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and
culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an
"ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems.
From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to
the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of
Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology
has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different
eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas
Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could
be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis
Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing
mechanization of American life.
Such divergent views, Hughes shows, have existed side by side,
demonstrating the fundamental idea that "in its variety, technology
is full of contradictions, laden with human folly, saved by
occasional benign deeds, and rich with unintended consequences." In
"Human-Built World," he offers the highly engaging history of these
contradictions, follies, and consequences, a history that
resurrects technology, rightfully, as more than gadgetry; it is in
fact no less than an embodiment of human values.
American Genesis is the book that helped earn Thomas Hughes his
reputation as one of the foremost historians of technology of our
age. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1990, the book tells the
sweeping story of America's technological revolution. Unlike other
histories of technology, which focus on particular inventions like
the light bulb or the automobile, American Genesis makes these
inventions characters in the chronicle, shaped by and shaping a
broader cultural context. By masterfully weaving scientific and
technological advancement into other cultural trends, Hughes
demonstrates here the myriad ways in which the two are Inextricably
linked. A new preface by Hughes recounts his missteps in predicting
the future of technology and also traces our advancement into the
information age.
The Genealogy and Family History Collection is a unique set of
materials that describes the histories and narratives of particular
American families. The Collection brings to life pre-1923 books
that contain information such as birth, death, marriage, property
and migration records of specific families. Many of these families
followed interesting migration and movement patterns from Western
Europe and beyond to the United States well over 200 years ago.
Included in these volumes is information such as last wills and
testaments, period photographs of towns, buildings and landscapes,
portraits of family members, and descriptions of business
interactions. Encompassing such comprehensive and personal
information, this collection will appeal to genealogists, family
history researchers, as well as descendants and casual historians.
The Genealogy and Family History Collection is a unique set of
materials that describes the histories and narratives of particular
American families. The Collection brings to life pre-1923 books
that contain information such as birth, death, marriage, property
and migration records of specific families. Many of these families
followed interesting migration and movement patterns from Western
Europe and beyond to the United States well over 200 years ago.
Included in these volumes is information such as last wills and
testaments, period photographs of towns, buildings and landscapes,
portraits of family members, and descriptions of business
interactions. Encompassing such comprehensive and personal
information, this collection will appeal to genealogists, family
history researchers, as well as descendants and casual historians.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Poor Things
Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, …
DVD
R449
R329
Discovery Miles 3 290
Southpaw
Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, …
DVD
R99
R24
Discovery Miles 240
|