Reference no: EM133280555
Question 1. In our first week, we examined the origins of "technology" as both a concept and a term. We also unpacked how historians study the history of technology.
While "technology" is a slippery concept, based on our course material thus far, how do historians of technology examine their subject matter? In other words, what approaches or analytical methods do they employ? What source materials do they use? What historical questions do they ask? In tandem, what has your primary source research, thus far, illustrated about the history of technology?
Finally, what can the technology study tell us about American culture and society from the eighteenth century through the early twentieth century? What broad themes and/or developments can you detect from our class material?
Question 2: Communications
Americans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also experienced a communications revolution. What technologies revolutionized how Americans communicated information, how were those technologies developed, and who should be credited for those inventions? How has the patent system, especially concerning communications technologies, along with the "incorporation of America," i.e., the dominance of large-scale corporations, shaped our understanding of this past?
Finally, why are the communications breakthroughs of this period historically significant? In other words, why do they matter?