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Indlæser... Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815af Ken Alder
Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Although this is a book about the struggles for and against the implementation of interchangeable parts manufacturing for guns in the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary era, it’s also a great book for anyone interested in the history of technology generally, because it’s a closely observed and theoretically rich study of the ways in which technology always has and helps make meaning. Even whether something “works,” it turns out, is hotly contested, especially when it’s human beings doing the measuring. Technological progress is not a phenomenon independent of political and cultural organization, as the workers who resisted the measurements and deskilling that came along with interchangeable parts knew quite well; Alder also points out that Japan was able to reject the gun entirely for a long period, because it didn’t fit with the kinds of fights the rulers wanted to have. In France, what it meant for a gun to “work” within a context of particular strategies for organizing men and fighting tactics was itself up for grabsons. And lest you think that’s all over and done now that we have really advanced tech, consider how well the iPhone “works” despite needing a case to limit dropped calls and frequent replacement of the gorgeous but easily cracked glass front and back. ( ) ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
Hæderspriser
The French Revolution and Industrial Revolution together inaugurated the modern era. But recent historical "revisionists" have divorced eighteenth-century material conditions from concurrent political struggles. This book's anti-teleological approach repudiates technological determinism to document the forging of a new relationship between technology and politics in Revolutionary France. It does so through the history of a particular artifact--the gun. Expanding the "political" to include conflict over material objects, Ken Alder rethinks the nature of engineering rationality, the origins of mass production, and our interpretation of the French Revolution. Near the end of the Enlightenment, a cadre of artillery engineers transformed the design, production, and deployment of military guns. Part 1 shows how the gun, the first artifact amenable to scientific analysis, was redesigned by engineers committed to new meritocratic forms of technological knowledge and how the Revolutionaries and artillery officer Napoleon exploited their techno-social designs. Part 2 shows how the gun became the first artifact to be mass producedwith interchangeable parts, as French engineers deployed "objective" drawings and automatic machinery to enforce production standards in the face of artisanal resistance. And Part 3 places the gun at the center of a technocratic revolution led by engineers on the Committee of Public Safety, a revolution whose failure inaugurated modern capitalist techno-politics. This book offers a challenging demonstration of how material artifacts emerge as the negotiated outcome of political struggle. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)944.04History and Geography Europe France and region France Revolution 1789-1804LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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