The following table presents a selection of lecture outlines.
| Lec # | Topics | LECTURE NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | |
| 2 | What is Technology? | What is Technology? (PDF) |
| 3 | Technologies of Colonization and Conquest | Technology in Colonial America (PDF) |
| 4 | Crafts and Craftsmanship in Early America |
Crafts and Craftsmanship in Early America (PDF)
Discussion of Film The Gunsmith of Williamsburg (PDF) |
| 5 |
Paul Revere: Technologist?
Guest Speaker: Prof. Rob Martello (Olin College) |
|
| 6 | Politics and Early American Industrialization | Technology and Nationalism, 1789-1825 (PDF) |
| 7 | The Role of the State in Early American Industry | From Swords to Ploughshares: The Development of Interchangeable Parts, 1798-1850 (PDF) |
| 8 | Social and Political Implications of the New Technology | Technology and Politics (PDF) |
| 9 |
The Transportation and Communications Revolution
First Reading Quiz |
‘System/Order/Uniformity’: Army Engineers and the Rise of Modern Management (PDF) |
| 10 | Art and Industrialization | The Railroad as a Technological Symbol in American Art (PDF) |
| 11 | The Emerging Culture of Engineering in America | |
| 12 | Technology in the Civil War Era | Technology, Civil War, and the War’s Larger Implications (PDF) |
| 13 | Technology in the Civil War Era (cont.) | |
| 14 | Human Machines? Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management | |
| 15 | Automobility and Mass Production | “Henry Ford and the Advent of Mass Production” (PDF) |
| 16 | Second Reading Quiz | |
| 17 | Mass Production | |
| 18 |
Hobbyist Worlds and Technological Enthusiasm in Modern America
Guest Speaker: Kieran Downes (MIT) |
|
| 19 |
Aeronautics and the Systems Approach
Guest Speaker: Dr. Deborah Douglas (MIT Museum) |
Guest lecture by Dr. Deborah Douglas, MIT Museum. (PDF) (Courtesy of Dr. Deborah Douglas. Used with permission.) |
| 20 | Technology and Art at the Apex of the Machine Age | |
| 21 |
World War II: A Technological Turning Point?
Guest Speaker: Dr. Brendan Foley (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) |
|
| 22 | World War II: A Technological Turning Point? (cont.) | |
| 23 | A New World: Technology in Cold War America | |
| 24 |
Computers and Control: The Apollo Program
Guest Speaker: Sandy Brown (MIT) |
|
| 25 | Nature’s Revenge: Technology and the Environment | |
| 26 |
The Brave New World of Biotechnology
Guest Speaker: Victor McElheny (MIT Knight Fellows Program) |
