To go directly to the assignment for a given week, click on the appropriate date:

Week 1: Imagining Technology in the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries

2/8: America.Com -- Technology and the Millenial Imagination

Technology ads on television; initial discussion of the internet.

2/10: Railroads and Nineteenth-Century America

Shivelbusch, “The American Railroad,” in The Railway Journey: Trains and Travel in the Nineteenth Century (1979), 93-117;

Zitkala-Sa, American Indian Stories (1900-1901), 7-99.

Images of railroads in 19th-century American landscapes

Week 2: More Nineteenth-Century Technological Imaginings

2/15: Bierce, "Moxon's Master" (1893); (CLICK HERE FOR A BETTER PRINT IMAGE)

Look at sites on World's Columbian Exposition (pay particular attention to sections on technology and machinery): http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html;

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/reactions.html;

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/legacy.html.

Recommended for 2/15: Christopher Chabris, "The Last Human Champion? Chess Computer Gains Ground Bit by Bit," Games magazine, July 1996, pp. 10-12, 14, 63. Text online at http://www.h3.org/pub/acj/extra/Chabris/Chabris03.html;

Luke Oliver, "The King of Computers" (1997): http://www.ozemail.com.au/~luke/write_chess.html.

2/17: Orvell, "Photography and the Artifice of Realism," The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture, 1880-1940 (1989), 73-103;

Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890) [text on-line at Yale University web site: http://www.cis.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/title.html].

Edward Curtis photographs: http://www.afterimagegallery.com/curtis.htm and The Vanishing Race

2/18: FIRST SHORT ESSAY DUE.

Week 3: Efficient Machines and Inefficient Human Beings

2/22: Modern Times(clips to be screened in class);

Muybridge, Animal Locomotion (1888), excerpts;

Website on Muybridge: http://access.tucson.org/~michael/em_2.html

2/24: Tichi, "Efficiency," Shifting Gears: Technology, Literature, and Culture in Modernist America (1987), 75-91;

Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management (1911), 5-8, 30-144.

Discussion questions and passages

Week 4: Nightmare Visions of Technology in the Early Twentieth Century

2/29: Huxley, A Brave New World (1932), 1-122.

Discussion questions; passages

3/2: Huxley, 123-end.

Discussion questions; passages

Week 5: Assessing Technology in the Great Depression

3/7: In-Class Audio: 1938 Broadcast of "The War of the Worlds"

Script of 1938 Radio Broadcast, "The War of the Worlds" and related commentary in Cantril, The Invasion from Mars(1940), 3-55;

Oxford, "Night of the Martians," American History Illustrated 23:6(1988), 14-23.

Discussion questions and passages

3/9: Schell, "A Brave New Future: The New York World's Fair, 1939," American History Illustrated 17:6(1982), 8-15. [This is in your coursepack but it is not listed in the table of contents.];

Discovery Channel site on the World's Fairs of 1893, 1939 and 1964: http://www.discovery.com/area/technology/future/future1.html

No discussion questions for today; come prepared to resume Tuesday's discussion and to work on your papers in class. Do read the Schell essay.

3/10: SECOND SHORT ESSAY DUE.

Week 6: Technology, World War II, and the Dawn of the Atomic Age

3/14: Sandels, "UFOs, Science Fiction, and the Postwar Utopia," Journal of Popular Culture 20:1(1986), 141-151;

Discussion questions and passages

3/16: Hales, "The Atomic Sublime," American Studies 32:1(1991), 5-31;

In-class film clips, The Atomic Cafe (1984).

You might also look at these nuclear-related websites:

http://fas.org/nuke/hew/Usa/Tests/Trinity.html

http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/nuketesting/testpix/index.html

http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/nuketesting/trinity/tr_test.html

Discussion questions and passages

Week 7: Spring Vacation

Week 8: Technological Nightmares and Cold War Realities

3/28: Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451(1950)

Discussion questions and passages

Assignment for third essay

3/28: Screening of The Thing from Another World (1951) at 7:30 in Bicentennial Hall 148.

3/30: Smoodin, "Watching the Skies: Hollywood, the 1950s, and the Soviet Threat," Journal of American Culture 11:2(1988), 35-40.

 Discussion questions and passages

Week 9: Dissenting Visions of Cold War Technology

4/4: Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle (1963).

Discussion questions and passages

4/4: Evening screening of Dr. Strangelove (1963).

4/6: Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle, continued.

In-class writing workshop - review the film

Discussion questions and passages

4/7: THIRD SHORT ESSAY DUE -- EXTENDED TO 4/10.

SAMPLE REVIEWS -- You can also go to ProQuest yourself on the library home page. Once there, search for titles of recent films to find other sample reviews.

Week 10: Positive Visions of American Technology in the 1960s

4/12: Smith, "Making Time: Representations of Technology at the 1964 World's Fair," in Fox and Lears, ed., The Power of Culture (1993), 223-244;

Web sites on 1964 New York World's Fair:

http://www.lihistory.com/7/hs733a.htm#side

http://members.aol.com/nywf1964/postcard.html

http://www.cgsd.com/rlatham/NYWorldFair/index.htm

Discussion questions and passages

4/14: In-class screening and discussion: Star Trek episodes.

CLICK HERE FOR FOURTH ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

Week 11: Technology in the 1970s and 80s

4/18: Garson, The Electronic Sweatshop(1988), 9-13, 17-70, 261-263.

Discussion questions and passages

4/18: Evening screening of Terminator(1984).

4/20: In-class film clips from Terminator 2(1991) and Blade Runner(1982);

Begin reading and discussing Stephenson, Snow Crash(1992), 1-77.

Discussion questions and passages

Week 12: Cyberpunk: Technology in Postmodern Perspective

4/25: Stephenson, Snow Crash, 183-300. (PAGE NUMBERS REVISED)

Discussion questions and passages

4/25: Evening screening of The Matrix (1999).

4/27: Stephenson, Snow Crash, 346-470 (pay particular attention to 346-354, 384-408, 421-468);

Discussion of The Matrix.

Discussion questions and passages

4/28: FOURTH ESSAY DUE

Week 13: Technology and Selfhood at the Dawn of the New Millenium

Given how busy everyone probably is, I propose a revision to the syllabus. Rather than having a Tuesday night screening and continuing with our discussion of Turkel on Thursday, I propose that we wrap up Turkel in Tuesday's class and watch clips of You've Got Mail in class on Thursday.

5/2: Turkle, Life on the Screen (1995), 9-174.

Discussion questions and passages

5/2: Evening screening of You've Got Mail (1998). (CANCELLED)

5/4: In class screening and discussion: You've Got Mail

also look over the exam questions before class.