Background
Pursell, Carroll Wirth was born on September 4, 1932 in Visalia, California, United States. Son of Carroll Wirth and Ruth Irene (Crowell) Pursell.
( From the medieval farm implements used by the first col...)
From the medieval farm implements used by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of society as well. Arguing that "the tools and processes we use are a part of our lives, not simply instruments of our purpose," historian Carroll Pursell analyzes technology's impact on the lives of women and men, on their work, politics, and social relationships―and how, in turn, people influence technological development. Pursell shows how both the idea of progress and the mechanical means to harness the forces of nature developed and changed as they were brought from the Old World to the New. He describes the ways in which American industrial and agricultural technology began to take on a distinctive shape as it adapted and extended the technical base of the industrial revolution. He discusses the innovation of an American system of manufactures and the mechanization of agriculture; new systems of mining, lumbering, and farming, which helped conquer and define the West; and the technologies that shaped the rise of cities. In the second edition of The Machine in America, Pursell brings this classic history up to date with a revised chapter on war technology and new discussions on information technology, globalization, and the environment.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801885795/?tag=2022091-20
( "A Coca-Cola bottle, a Samurai sword, a Rolls-Royce, an...)
"A Coca-Cola bottle, a Samurai sword, a Rolls-Royce, and a prehistoric stone tool are linked not only because they are projects of technology, but also because each is a symbol invested with meaning," writes historian Carroll Pursell. His adventurous and timely book takes the reader on a tour through history and around the lives, showing what machines can tell us about the world we want to have. White Heat explores a range of themes: technology's effect on our perceptions of time and space; its role in mass production theories that turn workers into interchangeable parts; its sanitizing of warfare with "smart" weapons that kill more people more quickly; and the psychological and social implications of the "information age." Pursell demonstrates these themes with absorbing anecdotes and provocative questions. How was the nineteenth-century boom in soap manufacturing related to standards of social morality? How does voice-mail encode certain cultural assumptions about gender and class? In revealing the ways that technological developments embody myth, ritual, and fantasies, Pursell shows that technology is as culturally specific, and as culturally illuminating, as art, literature, or any other work of the human imagination. Accessible and lively, with tales of quirks and mishaps, White Heat is for anyone caught up in our beeping, roaring, technologized world. White Heat was written to accompany a major eight-part television series, shown in the fall of 1994.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520089057/?tag=2022091-20
Pursell, Carroll Wirth was born on September 4, 1932 in Visalia, California, United States. Son of Carroll Wirth and Ruth Irene (Crowell) Pursell.
Bachelor of Arts, University of California, Berkeley, 1956; Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley, 1962; Master of Arts, University Delaware, 1958.
Assistant professor of history, Case Institute Technology, Cleveland, 1963-1965; assistant professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1965-1969; associate professor, University of California, 1969-1976; professor, University of California, 1976-1988; Adeline Barry Davee Distinguished professor of history, Case Western Reserve U., Cleveland, since 1988. Mellon professor Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1974-1976. Visiting research scholar Smithsonian Institution, 1970.
( "A Coca-Cola bottle, a Samurai sword, a Rolls-Royce, an...)
( From the medieval farm implements used by the first col...)
(Book by Pursell, Carroll W.)
(Brand New. In Stock. Will be shipped from US. Excellent C...)
(softcover)
Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science. Member: American History Association, Organization American Historians, Society History of Technology (president 1990-1992, president international com.for history of technical 1998—2001, Leonardo da Vinci medal 1991), Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Joan Young, January 28, 1956 (deceased 1985). Children: Rebecca Elizabeth, Matthew Carroll. Married Angela Woollacott, December 20, 1986.