Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America, 1776-1900

We used this book as one of our texts in a history of technology course. I thought that Kasson did an excellent job covering such a large amount of material in a relatively short book.Though it was a little dry (I would never have picked it up on my own) I thought it served as an excellent piece on early American history from a tachnological perspective.

In "Civilizing the Machine", Kasson presents a very fair and even set of accounts which chronicles the advent of the American industrial and technological communities. While this is not your standard economics or history book, Kasson sets the tone for the burgeoning young nation's entrance onto the world trade stage. His insights over the "hidden agenda" of many early national leaders are quite fascinating; in this regard, he slyly points out that many of our forefathers who were so deftly incline to advocate liberties and freedom for the masses were also deeply concerned over the relatively slight amount of intelligence among the working classes. The book is not without its faults. The decision to not include any narratives about the economic and industrial effects from the Civil War was a troubling omission for this reader. Kassan's treatment of America's infantile arts and education communities might lose some readers. His goal, which takes a while to digest, is to point out that most of the early arts docents from the industrial powerhouses were simply trying to encourage the common workers to realize that their contributions to the "American machine" were actually assisting in the development of a sense of American culture. In that this book takes the reader down the venues of early Revolutionary War era factories, controversial immigration policies in the last half of the nineteenth century, and the mindset behind the first free, public American schools, it is a highly recommended work for fans of history, education in American and the Industrial Revolution.