The Material Life of Human Beings: Artifacts, Behavior and Communication

Michael Brian Schiffer

Routledge

People and Things: A Behavioral Approach to Material Culture (Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique)

James M. Skibo

Springer

Many technologies begin life as someone's vision of an ambitious, perhaps audacious, technology that is expected to have a revolutionary impact on consumers-whether families, companies, or societies. However, if this highly touted technology fails "prematurely" at some point in its life history, it becomes a spectacular flop. Employing a behavioral perspective, this book presents a sample of twelve spectacular flops encompassing the past three centuries-ranging from the world's first automobile to the nuclear-powered bomber. Because technologies may fail from many different causes, spectacular flops pose a special challenge to the author's long-term project of furnishing generalizations about technological change. Instead of constructing generalizations that apply to all spectacular flops, this book provides limited generalizations that pertain to particular groups of technologies bounded by parameters such as "long-term development projects" and "one-off projects." The reader need have no prior familiarity with the technologies because basic principles are introduced as needed.

Spectacular Flops: Game-Changing Technologies That Failed

Science & Math

History & Philosophy

Eliot Werner Publishing

Looks at the development of electric automobiles, their replacement by gasoline-powered autos, and their recent return to favor

Taking Charge: The Electric Automobile in America

Engineering & Transportation

Automotive

Smithsonian Institution Press

The tumultuous history of inventors and corporations who have tried to bring the electric car to the market. Amazingly, in 1900 28 percent of all cars were electric. By 1920 the electric car had all but vanished and gas-powered cars dominated the market. In Taking Charge, Schiffer deftly explores how cultural factors, not technological ones, explain the rise of gas-guzzling cars. Schiffer brings the history of the electric car into the present, arguing that despite the Detroit Big Three’s reluctance to make electric cars, their time has finally arrived.

History

Americas

Smithsonian Books

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Books by Michael Brian Schiffer