JTE v3n1 - Book Review- Technology and Society in Twentieth Century America: An Anthology.
Volume 3, Number 1
Fall 1991
BOOK REVIEW
STROSS, R. E. (1989). TECHNOLOGY AND SOCI-
ETY IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICA: AN ANTHOL-
OGY. BLEMONT, CA: WADSWORTH, $21.95
(PAPERBACK), 273 PP. (ISBN 0-534-10927-6)
Reviewed by Karen F. Zuga
This collection of readings could pro-
vide technology teachers and teacher educa-
tors with another opportunity to look at the
relationship between our use of technology
and our formal and informal political proc-
esses. In this book Stross has been able to
assemble a collection of readings which inte-
grates the study of technology and society.
Stross' book could serve to supplement the
too often technically slanted books we tend
to write and use in technology education.
Stross has dealt with several important
ways in which we advanced our use of technol-
ogy in the twentieth century by selecting
passages from published texts. Each author
and topic is introduced by Stross in order to
provide the reader with background informa-
tion. Topics are arranged in a chronological
order based upon the order in which we began
to develop and pay attention to each kind of
technology. Some of the topics are: the in-
dustrial organization of agriculture, corpo-
rate capitalism, the industrial state, birth
control, the car culture, suburbanization,
space age politics, household technologies,
show business and public discourse, and com-
puters and the human spirit.
One of the advantages of the anthology
format is that each topic is treated by spe-
cialists who are able to lend their own ex-
pertise to the topic. Some of those authors
are: Harry Braverman, David Noble, John
Kenneth Galbraith, Ivan Illich, Neil Postman,
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, and Sherry Turkle.
Moreover, their best work is featured--
providing the reader with the cream and sav-
ing the time of reading through all of the
texts. In one text a reader can survey se-
veral authors and, perhaps, find a few to
pursue in greater depth. Not all of the top-
ics or authors will strike a responsive chord
with all readers. An anthology provides a
variety which can please most of the readers
most of the time.
The treatment of the topics is not al-
ways one which we would like to hear, but of-
ten, it is one we must hear and we should be
addressing in our own courses. For example,
as we teach about construction we need to ad-
dress the role that contractors play in shap-
ing public policy by reinforcing the status
quo. The section on suburbanization includes
a discussion of the growth of the suburbs in
the late 1940s and the way in which William
Levitt conformed to common practice and main-
tained segregation in the new suburbs.
The Levitt organization, which was no
more culpable in this regard than any
other urban or suburban firm, publicly
and officially refused to sell to
blacks for two decades after the war.
Nor did resellers deal with minorities.
As William Levitt explained, "We can
solve a housing problem, or we can try
to solve a racial problem. But we can-
not combine the two." Not surpris-
ingly, in 1960 not a single one of the
Long Island Levittown's 82,000 resi-
dents was black. (p. 158)
The way in which Levitt built suburban hous-
ing was a technological innovation, but this
text helps us to understand that it was not
used as a value free innovation. In the dis-
cussion about television, communication
teachers are presented with a wealth of in-
formation and insight about the medium.
Again, the message is related to the value
orientation of the medium.
Entertainment is the supraideology of
all discourse on television. No matter
what is depicted or from what point of
view, the overarching presumption is
that it is there for our amusement and
pleasure...A news show...is a format
for entertainment, not for education,
reflection or catharsis...There is no
conspiracy here, no lack of intelli-
gence, only a straightforward recogni-
tion that "good television" has little
to do with what is "good" about exposi-
tion or other forms of verbal communi-
cation but everything to do with what
pictorial images look like. (p. 246)
Discussions such as the one above help all of
us to look at our use of technology again and
to see the way in which our seemingly neutral
technology becomes tied up with values and
biases as we interpret a purpose and make
choices about how to use an artifact, tool,
or process.
Stross' anthology leaves the reader with
a message about how we make decisions about
the use of technology and, through his se-
lections of readings, he leaves the reader a
strong message about how we make those
choices from our own ideology and values.
The anthology is a good counter to the tech-
nological determinist view. Moreover, the
variety of selections makes it easy to read
and to glean a variety of insights into the
choices we make collectively about technol-
ogy.
TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY IN TWENTIETH CEN-
TURY AMERICA should be of interest to all
technology educators. It would be a good ad-
dition to the professional reading list of
teacher educators and practicing teachers.
It could serve as either the foundation of a
general technology course or a source of
readings for courses in communication, con-
struction, manufacturing, etc. We need to
think about using texts such as this one in
order to balance the lopsided technical ap-
proach we take when teaching about technol-
ogy.
----------------
Karen Zuga is Associate Professor, Industrial
Technology Education Department, The Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Permission is given to copy any
article or graphic provided credit is given and
the copies are not intended for sale.
Journal of Technology Education Volume 3, Number 1 Fall 1991