THANK YOU, MR. EDISON
Electricity, Innovation, and Social Change
Robert Gabrick and Barbara Markham
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In Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, David
E. Nye argues, "A technology is not merely a system of machines with certain
functions; it is part of a social world. Electrification is not an implacable
force moving through history, but a social process that varies from one
time period to another and from one culture to another" (p. ix). Nye continues,
"Americans adopted electrical technologies in a wide range of social, political,
economic, and aesthetic contexts, weaving them into the fabric of experience" (p. x).
Using documents from American Memory, plus supplementary
material, students investigate electrification as both a technological
and social process. A focus of the student's investigation is
Thomas Edison, because, as Nye contends, "Electricity was the sign of Edison's
genius, the wonder of the age, the hallmark of progress" (p. 1).
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