Required Readings
[Becoming MIT] Kaiser, David. Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision. The MIT Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780262113236.
| WEEK # | TOPIC | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction, Course Overview, What is Technology? | Marx, Leo. “Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept.” Technology and Culture 51, no. 3 (2010). |
| 2 | America in 1850: The Age of Transformation |
Maier, Pauline, et al. “A House Dividing: 1851–1860.” In Inventing America: A History of the United States. W. W. Norton & Company, 2006, pp. 422–49. ISBN: 9780393168167. Selections from Miller, Douglas. In The Birth of Modern America 1820–1850. Macmillian Pub Co, 1970. ISBN: 9780672635090. - Everything’s Changed, pp. 19–41. - The Industrial Road to the ‘Celestial City, pp. 67–90. Optional Reading: Howe, Daniel. “The Revolutions of 1848” and “Finale: A Vision of the Future.” In What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815–1848. Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 792–855. ISBN: 9780195078947. 72 pages |
| 3 | William Barton Rogers & The Foundational Years, 1861–1896 |
[Becoming MIT] pp. 20–47. Smith, Merritt Roe. “‘Godspeed the Institute’: The Foundational years, 1861–1894.” Senate and House of Representatives of Massachusetts. 1861. “Acts and Resolves of the General Court Relating to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” Acts of 1861, Chapter 183. (PDF) Walker, Francis Amasa. “Massachusetts Institute of Technology Annual Report.” Cambridge: University Press, 1894. Eliot, Charles. “The New Education.” The Atlantic Monthly 23, no. 136 (1869): 203–20. Optional Reading: Rogers, William Barton, et al. “Scope and Plan of the School of Industrial Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” 1984. [Preview with Google Books] Angulo, A. J. “Instituting a New Education.” In William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 86–100. ISBN: 9780801890338. ———. “Convergence of Interests.” In William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 101–23. ISBN: 9780801890338. Noble, David. “The Wedding of Science to the Useful Arts - II: The Development of Technical Education.” In America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 1979, pp. 20–53. ISBN: 9780195026184. [Preview with Google Books] 132 pages |
| 4 | Harvard, MIT, and Building a New Campus |
- “Richard Cockburn Maclaurin—Sixth President.” - “The New Technology.” - “The Last Years in Boston.” [Becoming MIT], pp. 51–77. Sinclair, Bruce. “Mergers and Acquisitions.” Jarzombek, Mark. Designing MIT: Bosworth’s New Tech. Northeastern, 2004, pp. 56–7, 65–91, and 94–5. ISBN: 9781555536190. [Preview with Google Books] Optional Reading: Pearson, Henry. Selections from Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1909–1920. The Macmillan Company, 1937. - “A Site for Technology.” pp. 97–117. - “Concerning ‘Mr. Smith.’” pp. 118–32. - “The New Buildings.” pp. 133–80. 120 pages |
| 5 | MIT and the Corporate World in the Age of Big Business, 1890-1930 |
Noble, David. Selections from America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780195026184. - “Science for Industry: The Organization of Industrial and University Research.” pp. 110–18, and 136–47. - “Technology as People: The Industrial Process of Higher Education.” pp. 167–70. - “A Technology of Social Production: Modern Management and the Expansion of Engineering.” pp. 257–68. Owens, Larry. “Engineering and the Perfect Cup of Coffee: Samuel Prescott and the Sanitary Vision at MIT.” Technology and Culture 45, no. 4 (2004): 795–807. Hughes, Thomas. “The System Must Be First.” In American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870–1970. University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp. 184–248. ISBN: 9780226359274. [Preview with Google Books] [Becoming MIT] pp. 75–102. Lécuyer, Christophe. 2010. “Patrons and a Plan.” Bassett, Ross. “MIT Trained Swadeshis: MIT and Indian Nationalism, 1880–1947.” Osiris 24 (2009): 212–30. 163 pages |
| 6 | World War I, the 1920s, and the 1930s |
Hughes, Thomas. “Brain Mill for the Military.” In American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870–1970. University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp. 96–137. ISBN: 9780226359274. [Preview with Google Books] Servos, John. “The Industrial Relations of Science: Chemical Engineering at MIT, 1900–1939.” Isis 71, no. 4 (1980): 531–49. Lécuyer, Christophe. “The Making of a Science Based Technological University: Karl Compton, James Killian, and the Reform of MIT, 1930–1957.” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 23 (1992): 153–80. 121 pages |
| 7 | Symposium: Leaders in Science and Engineering: The Women of MIT | [Becoming MIT] pp. 216–50. Bailyn, Lotte. “Putting Gender on the Table.” |
| 8 | Class Meets at MIT Museum |
MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections. “The Mid-Century Convocation at MIT March 31, April 1–2, 1949.” August, 1999. 6 pages. |
| 9 | Symposium: Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything (Kresge Auditorium) | |
| 10 | World War II and the Aftermath |
[Becoming MIT] pp. 103–36. Douglas, Deborah. 2010. “MIT and War.” Dupree, A. Hunter. “The Great Instauration of 1940.” In The Twentieth Century Sciences: Studies in the Biography of Ideas. Edited by Gerald Holton. W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, pp. 443–67. ISBN: 9780393063844. Bush, Vannevar. “Science, The Endless Frontier.” Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945.
100 pages |
| 11 | Sputnik and the Cold War |
Hughes, Thomas. Selections from Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World. Vintage, 2000. ISBN: 9780679739388. - MIT as System Builder: SAGE, pp. 15–67. - Spread of the Systems Approach, pp. 141–95. Noble, David. “Command Performance.” In Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Edited by Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey. Houghton Mifflin, 1997, pp. 462–70. ISBN: 9780669354720. [Preview with Google Books]
- “Sputnik and its Shockwaves.” - “To Reassure the Nation.” Leslie, Stuart. “A University Polarized Around the Military.” In The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 14–43. ISBN: 9780231079594. 182 pages |
| 12 | Aerospace and Computing in the 1960s, Lab Life in the 1970s, The Past Three Decades |
Leslie, Stuart. “The Days of Reckoning: March 4 and April 3.” In The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 233–56. ISBN: 9780231079594. [Becoming MIT] pp. 185–212. Durant, John. 2010. “‘Refrain from Using the Alphabet’: How Community Outreach Catalyzed the Life Sciences at MIT.” 2010. Roberts, Edward, and Charles Eesley. “Entrepreneurial Impact: the Role of MIT.” Report sponsored by the Kaufman Foundation of Entrepreneurship, 2009, pp. 4–27. 73 pages |
