Making Waves: Engineering, Politics, and the Social Management of Technology

Wenk, E.; Wenk, Edward Jr.

ISBN 10: 0252021495 / ISBN 13: 9780252021497

Published by Univ of Illinois Pr, 1995

About this Item

Light wear on dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 316955

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Making Waves: Engineering, Politics, and the Social Management of Technology
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252021495
• ISBN 13: 9780252021497
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • American History

About this title

Synopsis

As the first science adviser to Congress and as adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon, Edward Wenk has seen firsthand both the benefits and the dilemmas created by technology - and the urgent need to recognize the powerful consequences of technological choice. The future will find Americans more reliant on technology. But will they be less in control of how it affects their lives?
Wenk's years of closely watching the influence of technology on public policy and politics make his warnings profound. Exploring the potentially explosive convergence of politics and technology, with tough-minded analysis of examples from space exploration to the Exxon Valdez, Wenk issues a call for greater civic competence, as producers and consumers of technology, as investors, as potential victims, and as voters. Otherwise, the very substance of democracy is at stake - as the politics of technology develops a powerful counterpart in the extraordinary influence of electronic media and computers, the technology of politics.

About the Author

Edward Wenk, Jr., is professor emeritus of engineering and public affairs at the University of Washington.