Required Book
Thomas J. Misa, Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), Second Edition; ISBN: 9781421401539. ***If you cannot find this edition, then feel free to use the 2004 or 2007 editions [ISBN 9780801878091], but note that they will be missing the last chapter of the new edition.
Part I. Short answer. Select THREE of the following and 1) describe the topic and 2) state clearly how/why the item is important to the history of technology (each one at least 100 words)
1. Elementarism
2. The “ironies of modernism”
3. Pentagon capitalism
4. Scientific mass-labor
5. U-235
6. Iroquois Theater Fire
Part II. Essay Questions.
Group A
A. Select ONE question from Group A and write an essay answering it as completely as possible. Use specific examples from the course. (at least 250 words)
6. Thomas Edison serves as an example of a major transition in the history of technology. Describe this transition and his role in it.
7. Why is the “Physicist’s Fable” an incomplete story?
8. Discuss TWO of the components of the stabilization of large-scale technological systems in the United States between 1880-1930?
Group B
B. Select ONE question from Group B and write an essay answering it as completely as possible. Use specific examples from the course. (at least 250 words)
9. Why is World War I referred to as the ‘Chemists’ War,’ and World War II referred to as the ‘Physicists’ War?’
10. How did the development of technology in the United States during the era of the “military-industrial complex” differ from that during the “industrial revolution”?
11. What is the ‘logic of war’ and how does it relate to the history of technology in the 20th century?
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