Course Description
This course will survey the history of technology from antiquity to the present with a particular focus on the ways in which common people experienced technologies in their daily lives. During the course, we will explore how technology enabled important social changes in Europe, Asia, and North America, while at the same time turning our attention to how social needs shaped the nature and direction of technological change. The first portion of the course will focus on ancient and medieval technologies, especially those related to daily life and work. As we approach the modern era, we will pay particular attention to the history, impact, and nature of such technologies as the telegraph, the atomic bomb, the birth control pill, the record player, and the internet. The main thrust of the course (and the class discussions) will not be how things work but the wider context of technology—questions such as: How has technology evolved? Why has it changed? With what consequences? What meanings do we ascribe to technology? Instead of focusing on technology as a disembodied force in society, we will try to locate the development of technologies within mainstream questions about the history of the modern world (e.g., the Industrial Revolution, the creation of “modernity,” war and technology, gender and technology, etc.). In sum, our goal will be to understand the critical relationship between society and technology through history.