Early American Technology: Making and Doing Things From the Colonial Era to 1850

McGaw, Judith A.

ISBN 10: 080782173X / ISBN 13: 9780807821732

Published by Omohundro Institute and UNC Press, 1994

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Early American Technology: Making and Doing Things From the Colonial Era to 1850
• Publisher: Omohundro Institute and UNC Press
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080782173X
• ISBN 13: 9780807821732
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This collection of original essays documents technology’s centrality to the history of early America. Unlike much previous scholarship, this volume emphasizes the quotidian rather than the exceptional: the farm household seeking to preserve food or acquire tools, the surveyor balancing economic and technical considerations while laying out a turnpike, the woman of child-bearing age employing herbal contraceptives, and the neighbors of a polluted urban stream debating issues of property, odor, and health. These cases and others drawn from brewing, mining, farming, and woodworking enable the authors to address recent historiographic concerns, including the environmental aspects of technological change and the gendered nature of technical knowledge. Brooke Hindle’s classic 1966 essay on early American technology is also reprinted, and his view of the field is reassessed. A bibliographical essay and summary of Hindle’s bibliographic findings conclude the volume. The contributors are Judith A. McGaw, Robert C. Post, Susan E. Klepp, Michal McMahon, Patrick W. O'Bannon, Sarah F. McMahon, Donald C. Jackson, Robert B. Gordon, Carolyn C. Cooper, and Nina E. Lerman.

About the Author

Judith A. McGaw is associate professor of the history of technology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is author of Most Wonderful Machine: Mechanization and Social Change in Berkshire Paper Making, 1801–1885.