Showing posts with label history of technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history of technology. Show all posts

The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways Review

The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
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The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways ReviewEarl Swift has written a marvelous book about the US interstate road system and the men - and there were a lot of them - behind the scenes, in "The Big Roads".
Most people seem to think that the US Interstate system was devised and begun during the Eisenhower administration. It was Eisenhower who approved and began the billions dollar project but planning had begun years before, as the automobile designs improved and costs went down, and people-in-cars took to the roads. At first, cars were used basically to go short distance, but as the 1900's turned into the 1910's, visionaries began to see the need for roads - and good roads - to stretch across the United States. Various government and private companies began working on developing a nationwide system, basically based on the upgrading of already established roads. State governments would approve upgrades in their own states, but there was no country-wide plan. Throughout the 1920's and 1930's plans continued to be made but not necessarily implemented. Notice was taken of the autobahn system being developed AND built in Germany. Strange how those beautifully developed four lane highways went out to the country's borders and not from city to city within Germany... Strange.
After WW2, the US government realised they had to begin building the Interstate system. Added cartage of goods and materiel during war-time had shown how inadequate US road system truly was. It was under Eisenhower, who, curiously had been part of a government study as an Army officer in the 1930's of the country's transportation system, that the national United States Interstate system was finally developed, approved, and built. Begun in the 1950's, roads are still being built and fixed today.
But with the approval of the Interstate system came the problems inherent in building it. Very little problems with going through the countrysides, but as urban planners and transportation planners began to clash as large interstate highways were being designed to cut through urban areas. Baltimore is a prime example of the problems encountered as the need for highways displaced entire neighborhoods.
Earl Swift has really done a great job producing a readable, thoughtful study of the Interstate system. The history of the roads and the problems we now face as a country as our infrastructure begins to stress in dangerous ways. I can really recommend this book.The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways Overview

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Cities of Light and Heat: Domesticating Gas and Electricity in Urban America Review

Cities of Light and Heat: Domesticating Gas and Electricity in Urban America
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Cities of Light and Heat: Domesticating Gas and Electricity in Urban America ReviewBeing a Masters student of History in Denver, Rose's work is recommended reading. Unless the processes and politics of technology and industrialization turn you on, the first two and final two chapters will be slow going. But in the middle three chapters Rose hits his stride describing how the utility companies placed appliances and power tools into turn-of-the-century "home ec" and "shop" classes to get an entire generation hooked for later consumption. He also details how the marketers focused pressure on husbands to buy these "labor-saving" devices for their overworked wives. Even if you are not into the techno-politico history, those middle three chapters are worth the price.Cities of Light and Heat: Domesticating Gas and Electricity in Urban America OverviewCities of Light and Heat takes us to Kansas City and Denver during the late nineteenth century when gas and electricity were introduced to these 'instant cities' of the west. With rich detail, Mark Rose shows how the new technology spread during the next century from a few streets and businesses within the city limits to countless private homes in the suburbs. In Kansas City and Denver, as in most communities throughout the U.S., business executives, city leaders, and engineers acted as early promoters of the new technology. But by the early 1900s educators, home builders, architects, and salespersons were becoming increasingly important as gas and electric utilities and appliances reached more and more American homes. But these voices for the new technology brought with them their own social attitudes and cultural values. By mid-century, whether in the classroom or in advertisements, Americans were regularly encouraged to fit the new technology within prevailing notions of cleanliness, comfort, convenience, and gender. Although in hindsight the spread of modern technology might seem inevitable to us, Rose shows how even the leaders of the nation's great gas and electric corporations with their vast production and distribution facilities were subject to geography, competing ideologies, urban politics, and even the choices of ordinary consumers. Rose thus locates the driving force behind the diffusion of technology in the neighborhoods, kitchens, and offices of the city. Cities of Light and Heat shows the importance of culture, politics, and urban growth in shaping technological change in the cities of North America.--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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