Does Technology Drive History?: The Dilemma of Technological Determinism

These thirteen essays explore a crucial historical question that has beennotoriously hard to pin down: To what extent, and by what means, does a society'stechnology determine its political, social, economic, and cultural forms?Karl Marxlaunched the modern debate on determinism with his provocative remark that "thehand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the s

These thirteen essays explore a crucial historical question that has beennotoriously hard to pin down: To what extent, and by what means, does a society'stechnology determine its political, social, economic, and cultural forms?Karl Marxlaunched the modern debate on determinism with his provocative remark that "thehand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with theindustrial capitalist," and a classic article by Robert Heilbroner (reprinted here)renewed the debate within the context of the history of technology. This bookclarifies the debate and carries it forward.Marx's position has become embedded inour culture, in the form of constant reminders as to how our fast-changingtechnologies will alter our lives. Yet historians who have looked closely at wheretechnologies really come from generally support the proposition that technologiesare not autonomous but are social products, susceptible to democratic controls. Theissue is crucial for democratic theory. These essays tackle it head-on, offering adeep look at all the shadings of determinism and assessing determinist models in awide variety of historical contexts.Contributors: Bruce Bimber. Richard W. Bulliet.Robert L. Heilbroner. Thomas P. Hughes. Leo Marx. Thomas J. Misa. Peter C. Perdue.Philip Scranton. Merritt Roe Smith. Michael L. Smith. John M. Staudenmaier. RosalindWilliams.