University of Pennsylvania Department of History and Sociology of Science

STSC 003 / HSOC 003 / SOCI 033 (SPRING 2012)

TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:00pm1:30pm Instructor: Dr. Matthew H. Hersch (mhersch@sas.upenn.edu) Office Hours: Mondays, 1:30pm3:30pm (Cohen Hall, Room 335) Teaching Assistants: Jason L. Schwartz (jlschwa2@sas.upenn.edu) Office Hours: Thursdays, 2:30pm4:30pm (Cohen Hall, 3rd Floor Lounge) L. Ruth Rand (lruthrand@sas.upenn.edu) Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2:30pm4:30pm (Cohen Hall, Room 330)

We shape our technologies; thereafter they shape us. This course surveys the ways in which technology has shaped humans relationships with each other and with the natural world. It follows the impact of technical developments throughout human history and across the globefrom stone tools, agriculture, and cave paintings to ancient cities, metallurgy, and aqueducts; from windmills, cathedrals, steam engines, and electricity to atom bombs, the Internet, and genetic engineering. Throughout, we will consider the aesthetic, religious, and mythical dimensions of technological change, focusing on the circumstances in which innovations emerge and their impact on social order, on the environment, and on the ways humans understand themselves. Class Meetings: The course meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since exams will draw heavily upon material covered only in class, it is absolutely essential that you attend. Readings: All of the readings for this course will be made available electronically via the course Blackboard site, and should be read by the dates listed.

STSC 003 (Spring 2012)

M. H. Hersch

Assignments: During the term, students will complete one short paper and one longer paper based on the analysis of an important local artifact. Exams: Students will take two in-class exams; these exams are non-cumulative. The exams will each consist of several objective questions (matching, true/false, etc.) and one essay. Grading: Grading will be based upon: the short paper (15%), the artifact paper (25%), and the two exams (30%, 30%). Written work in the course will be graded with emphasis on: (1) insightful, original argument and analysis; (2) mastery of the assigned readings and class material; and (3) writing that is clear, concise and free of error. Course Organization: PART I. TOWARD THE WORLD WE KNOW January 12: Becoming Human (1) No reading. January 17: Agriculture, Empire, Law (2) Andr Leroi-Gourhan, Gesture and Speech (1993), 23745. William McNeill, A World History (1971), 721. Melvin Kranzberg and Carroll Pursell, Technology in Western Civilization (1967), 2647. Short paper assignment distributed. January 19: Technologies of Greece and Rome (3) Melvin Kranzberg and Carroll Pursell, Technology in Western Civilization (1967), 4766. Arnold Pacey, Technology in World Civilization (1990), 137. January 24: From Sword to Plow (4) Jean Gimpel, The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1976), 75113. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (ca. 1400), 12535. January 26: Wonders of the Medieval World (5) Jean Gimpel, The Cathedral Builders (1983), 79, 2541.

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STSC 003 (Spring 2012) January 31: Technologies of Exploration (6)

M. H. Hersch

Robert Friedel, A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium (2007), 91112. PART II. THE ROOTS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION February 2: Dark Satanic Mills (7) Brooke Hindle and Steven Lubar, Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution, 17901860 (1986), 926, 109124. Charles Dickens, American Notes (1842), 191201. John Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America, 17761900 (1976), 55106. February 9: Working on the Railroad (8) Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey (1987), 1112, 129133, 159170. February 14: The Wizard of Menlo Park (9) Francis Miller, Thomas A. Edison: An Inspiring Story for Boys (1931), 1317, 3240, 109135, 190211. Dennis Karwatka, Against All Odds, in Invention and Technology (Winter 1991): 5055. February 16: Arms and Palaces (10) No reading. Short paper due. Artifact paper assignment distributed. February 21: The Year of Our Ford (11) Henry Ford, Mass Production, in Encyclopedia Britannica (1926), 82123. E. B. White, Farewell, My Lovely, in The New Yorker (1936), 16268. Stephen Meyer, The Five Dollar Day : Labor Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 19081921 (1981), 12348, 14968. February 23: From General Store to Department Store (12) Susan Porter Benson, Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Managers, and Customers in American Department Stores 18901940 (1987), 1274.

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STSC 003 (Spring 2012) February 28: Mass Media and Mass Consumption (13) No reading. March 1: Exam #1 No reading. PART III. KILLER IDEAS March 13: Taylorism and the Rise of Scientific Management (14)

M. H. Hersch

Frederick W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), 564. March 15: Technologies of Control (15) Thomas Hughes, American Genesis (2004), 184248. March 20: The Postwar Paradise (16) M. A. Dennis, Our First Line of Defense: Two University Laboratories in the Postwar American State, Isis 85 (1994): 42755. March 22: Penicillin, A-bombs, and the Limits of Technology (17) James W. Gibson, The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam (1986), 93154. March 27: Domestic Technologies (18) Ruth Schwartz Cowan, The Industrial Revolution in the Home, Technology & Culture 17 (1976): 123. Ellen Lupton, Mechanical Brides (1997), Sex Objects, Love, Laundry, and Leisure, 627. PART IV. THE FUTURE IS NOW March 29: Heights and Depths (19) Roger E. Bilstein, Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts (1994), 3 39. April 3: A Brief History of Information (20) Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (1983), 111 47, 187254. April 5: From Computer to Internet (21) Website: http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/

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STSC 003 (Spring 2012) April 10: The Final Frontier (22)

M. H. Hersch

Walter A. McDougall, ... The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (1997), 13234, 14156, 30106. John F. Kennedy, Memo for Vice President, April 20, 1961. Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President, Memo for the President, Evaluation of Space Program, April 28, 1961. April 12: Alternative Technologies (23) J. M. Wetmore, Building Amish community with technology: Regulating Machines and Techniques to Forward Social Goals, in IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 26 (2007): 1021. April 17: TBA No reading. April 19: TBA Artifact paper due. No reading. April 24: Exam #2 No reading.

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