Carroll Pursell tells the story of the evolution of American technology since World War II. His fascinating and surprising history links pop culture icons with landmarks in technological innovation and shows how postwar politics left their mark on everything from television, automobiles, and genetically engineered crops to contraceptives, Tupperware, and the Veg-O-Matic. Just as America's domestic and international policies became inextricably linked during the Cold War, so did the nation's public and private technologies. The spread of the suburbs fed into demands for an interstate highway system, which itself became implicated in urban renewal projects. Fear of slipping into a postwar economic depression was offset by the creation of "a consumers' republic" in which buying and using consumer goods became the ultimate act of citizenship and a symbol of an "American Way of Life." Pursell begins with the events of World War II and the increasing belief that technological progress and the science that supported it held the key to a stronger, richer, and happier America. He looks at the effect of returning American servicemen and servicewomen and the Marshall Plan, which sought to integrate Western Europe into America's economic, business, and technological structure. He considers the accumulating "problems" associated with American technological supremacy, which, by the end of the 1960s, led to a crisis of confidence. Pursell concludes with an analysis of how consumer technologies create a cultural understanding that makes political technologies acceptable and even seem inevitable, while those same political technologies provide both form and content for the technologies found at home and at work. By understanding this history, Pursell hopes to advance a better understanding of the postwar American self.

Technology in Postwar America: A History

History

Pursell, Carroll

Americas

Columbia University Press

"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.

White Heat: People and Technology

University of California Press

The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology

From the medieval farm implements brought by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of our society as well. Arguing that "the tools and processes we use are a part of our lives, not simply instruments of our purpose," historian Carroll Pursell analyzes technology's impact upon the lives of women and men, their work, politics, and social relationships―and in turn, their influence upon technological development.
Pursell shows how both the idea of progress and the mechanical means to harness the forces of nature developed and changed as they were brought from the Old World to the New. He describes the ways in which American industrial and agricultural technology began to take on a distinctive shape as it adapted and extended the technical base of the industrial revolution. He discusses the innovation of an American System of Manufactures and the mechanization of agriculture; new systems of mining, lumbering, and farming, which helped conquer and define the West; and the technologies that shaped the rise of cities.
And he shows how the export of technology helped to foster American hegemony both in theWestern Hemisphere and elsewhere in the world. 
Pursell also argues that American technology has created a social hegemony, not only over the way we live but also over how we evaluate that life. He shows that such developments as scientific management techniques and industrial research changed Americans' lives as much as the mass production of such durable consumer goods as radios and automobiles. In many ways, he concludes, today's military-industrial complex is the legacy of the intense cooperation between science and technology during World War II.

Johns Hopkins University Press

From the medieval farm implements used by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of society as well. Arguing that "the tools and processes we use are a part of our lives, not simply instruments of our purpose," historian Carroll Pursell analyzes technology's impact on the lives of women and men, on their work, politics, and social relationships -- and how, in turn, people influence technological development.
Pursell shows how both the idea of progress and the mechanical means to harness the forces of nature developed and changed as they were brought from the Old World to the New. He describes the ways in which American industrial and agricultural technology began to take on a distinctive shape as it adapted and extended the technical base of the industrial revolution. He discusses the innovation of an American system of manufactures and the mechanization of agriculture; new systems of mining, lumbering, and farming, which helped conquer and define the West; and the technologies that shaped the rise of cities. 
In the second edition of The Machine in America, Pursell brings this classic history up to date with a revised chapter on war technology and new discussions on information technology, globalization, and the environment.

Historical Study & Educational Resources

The Johns Hopkins University Press

2008 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
From the medieval farm implements used by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of society as well. Arguing that "the tools and processes we use are a part of our lives, not simply instruments of our purpose," historian Carroll Pursell analyzes technology's impact on the lives of women and men, on their work, politics, and social relationships―and how, in turn, people influence technological development.
Pursell shows how both the idea of progress and the mechanical means to harness the forces of nature developed and changed as they were brought from the Old World to the New. He describes the ways in which American industrial and agricultural technology began to take on a distinctive shape as it adapted and extended the technical base of the industrial revolution. He discusses the innovation of an American system of manufactures and the mechanization of agriculture; new systems of mining, lumbering, and farming, which helped conquer and define the West; and the technologies that shaped the rise of cities. 
In the second edition of The Machine in America, Pursell brings this classic history up to date with a revised chapter on war technology and new discussions on information technology, globalization, and the environment.

This is the history of a lnadmark California building and the people who have lived their lives in and around this California community. A lively text captures the story of Gilroy's city government form volunteer fire fighters and "frontier justice" through the events surrounding the two world wars. The building's transformation from city hall to popular restaurant telss an important historic preservation story.

Gilroy's Old City Hall, 1906-1989... (Local History Studies, Vol 34)

Woollacott, Angela

Myer, Chuck

California History Center

How technology shapes play in America―and vice versa.
In this romp through the changing landscape of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American toys, games, hobbies, and amusements, senior historian of technology Carroll Pursell poses a simple but interesting question: What can we learn by studying the relationship between technology and play? 
From Playgrounds to PlayStation explores how play reflects and drives the evolution of American culture. Pursell engagingly examines the ways in which technology affects play and play shapes people. The objects that children (and adults) play with and play on, along with their games and the hobbies they pursue, can reinforce but also challenge gender roles and cultural norms. Inventors―who often talk about "playing" at their work, as if motivated by the pure fun of invention―have used new materials and technologies to reshape sports and gameplay, sometimes even crafting new, extreme forms of recreation, but always responding to popular demand.
Drawing from a range of sources, including scholarly monographs, patent records, newspapers, and popular and technical journals, the book covers numerous modes and sites of play. Pursell touches on the safety-conscious playground reform movement, the dazzling mechanical innovations that gave rise to commercial amusement parks, and the media’s colorful promotion of toys, pastimes, and sporting events. Along the way, he shows readers how technology enables the forms, equipment, and devices of play to evolve constantly, both reflecting consumer choices and driving innovators and manufacturers to promote toys that involve entirely new kinds of play―from LEGOs and skateboards to beading kits and videogames.

From Playgrounds to PlayStation: The Interaction of Technology and Play

Sports & Outdoors

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pursell, Carroll. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pursell, Carroll

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pursell, Carroll. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Technology in Postwar America: A History

White Heat: People and Technology

The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology

The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology

The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology

Gilroy's Old City Hall, 1906-1989... (Local History Studies, Vol 34)

From Playgrounds to PlayStation: The Interaction of Technology and Play