Technology in Postwar America: A History

Carroll Pursell

July, 2007
Cloth, 320 pages, 23 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-12304-4
$36.50 / £25.00

"[An] engrossing, important book . . . [that] is enthusiastically recommended." — CHOICE

"Carroll Pursell is without question one of the most interesting historians of modern technology." — David Edgerton, Technology and Culture

"An excellent, contextualized history of American technology after 1941." — David E. Nye, ISIS

"Since Carroll Pursell coedited Technology in Western Civilization in 1967, we have looked to him to provide highly readable books and articles about major events and issues in the history of technology. Now, in Technology in Postwar America, he ably informs general readers about recent American history in which technology prevails." — Thomas P. Hughes, author of Human-Built World: How to Think About Technology and Culture

"Carroll Pursell deftly reveals the relations between technological change and histories of labor, environmentalism, militarism, consumption, and gender, drawing on novels, philosophical treatises, newspaper articles, films, government propaganda, and policy papers with equal facility." — Rebecca Herzig, Bates College

"Technology in Postwar America is a remarkable achievement, the first-ever effort by an eminent historian of technology to survey this critical period in the making of our (postmodern) society. Ranging chronologically from the beginning of World War II to the war in Iraq, and topically from ballistic missiles to mass produced tomatoes, Carroll Pursell shows us how dependent we have become, in our private as well as our public lives, on technology and technological systems. Pursell also helps us understand technology's boosters and its detractors, its pros as well as its cons—as we struggle to develop policies that will increase the former and decrease the latter. Written in clear and crisp prose, Technology in Postwar America is suitable for readers with broad interests as well as for students of American and global history." — Ruth Cowan , University of Pennsylvania

Related Subjects

• American History
• History of Science and Technology

About the Author

Carroll Pursell has taught at several universities, including Case Western Reserve, from which he retired as the Adeline Barry Davee Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He is a former president of the Society for the History of Technology and the International Committee for the History of Technology. He currently serves as adjunct professor of modern history at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.Carroll Pursell is Adeline Barry Davee Professor and Director of the Program in the History of Technology and Science at Case Western Reserve University.

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