American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm

543 Pages·1990·144.023 MB·English

by  Thomas P. Hughes

PENGUIN BOOKS
AMERICAN GENESIS
Thomas R Hughes is the Mellon Professor of the His­
tory and Sociology of Science at the University of Penn­
sylvania, holds the Torsten Althin Chair at the Royal
Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and is a fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His publi­
cations include two books about the nature of techno­
logical and social change: Networks of ibwer: Elec­
trification in Western Society (1880-1930) and Elmer
Sperry: Inventor and Engineer, each of which was
awarded the Dexter Prize for the outstanding book in the
history of technology. He lives with his wife in
Philadelphia.

A M E R I C A N
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PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
First published in the United States of America by
Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 1989
Published in Penguin Books 1990
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4
Copyright © Thomas P. Hughes, 1989
All rights reserved
A portion of Chapter 6 first appeared in American Heritage.
Illustration credit for page 344 (top) —
Sheeler, Charles, American Landscape, 1930
Oil on canvas, 24 x 31"
Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Other illustration credits appear on page 530.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Hughes, Thomas ftrke.
American genesis: a century of invention and technological
enthusiasm, 1870-1970/Thomas P. Hughes,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 014 00.9741 4
1. Technology—United States—History. I. Title.
[T21.H78 1990]
609.73—dc20 89-39468
Printed in the United States of America
Set in Electra and Spartan Heavy
Designed by Beth Tondreau Design
Except in die United States of America, this book is sold subject to
the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
For my father, Hunter Russell Hughes,
who believed in the America
of Edison and Ford

C O N T E N T S
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ■ ix
INTRODUCTION: THE
TECHNOLOGICAL TORRENT ■ 1
1 ■ A GIGANTIC TIDAL WAVE OF
HUMAN INGENUITY ■ 13
2 ■ CHOOSING AND SOLVING PROBLEMS ■ 53
3 ■ BRAIN MILL FOR THE MILITARY ■ 96
4 ■ NO PHILANTHROPIC ASYLUM FOR
INDIGENT SCIENTISTS ■ 138
5 ■ THE SYSTEM MUST BE FIRST ■ 184
6 ■ TAYLORISMUS + FORDISMUS =
AMERIKANISMUS ■ 249
7 ■ THE SECOND DISCOVERY OF AMERICA ■ 295
------ ■ vii ■ - .I/"------
CONTENTS
8 ■ TENNESSEE VALLEY AND MANHATTAN
ENGINEER DISTRICT ■ 353
9 ■ COUNTERCULTURE AND
MOMENTUM ■ 443
NOTES ■ 473
INDEX ■ 5 14
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
I am grateful to many persons and organizations for encouragement and
support. For time free from teaching and administrative duties and for
research and writing, I wish to thank the John F. Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation and Joel F. Conarroe, the SEL Foundation and Gerhard
Zeidler, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and Nils-Eric Svensson, the Uni­
versity of Pennsylvania and Michael Aiken, the Technische Hochschule
Darmstadt and Helmut Boehme, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and
Wolf Lepenies and Peter Wapnewski, the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
and Meinolf Dierkes and Wolfgang Zapf, and the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation.
I am especially indebted to Jóachim Nettelbeck and Georg Thum,
friends and colleagues, for unstinting support and constant encourage­
ment while I was carrying on research and writing in Berlin. Agatha, my
wife, and I are grateful to Svante Lindqvist, who supported us in Stock­
holm when the writing burden was unusually heavy. In Munich Otto
Mayr, in Starnberg Charlotte and Johannes Ottow, and in Berlin Gesine
and Hans-Werner Schütt assisted us in coundess thoughtful ways while
we were researching and writing there. Among those who, along with
me, were Fellows at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute of Ad­
vanced Study) in 1983-1984 and who took interest in my work were
Yehuda Elkhana, Timothy Lenoir, and Martin Wamke. In Darmstadt
Evelies Mayer was a supportive friend and colleague, as was Hanns
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Seidler, while I was Foundation Research Professor at the Technische
Hochschule. Mary Anderson and Everett Mendelsohn of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and Grafton, Vermont, were ever giving of encourage­
ment and wise counsel over the years when this book was in preparation.
To them we owe a special debt of gratitude.
At the University of Pennsylvania, the faculty of my department and
especially my chairperson, Rosemary Stevens, provided a challenging
and stimulating intellectual environment during the decade when this
book was germinating. This book reflects, I believe, the intellectual spirit
of the department. Graduate and undergraduate students at Penn heard
and commented perceptively and helpfully on early drafts of the book.
The administrative staff in the department, including Sylvia Dreyfiiss,
Patricia Johnson, Marthenia Perrin, and Joyce Roselle, cheerfully pro­
vided help in numerous ways. Also at Penn, Nancy Bauer was ever-
encouraging and supportive. I learned much from the discussions that
took place over several years with the participants in the Mellon Seminar
in Technology and Society, and I am especially appreciative of the con­
tribution that Alfred Rieber made in organizing and presiding over the
seminar. At the University of Pennsylvania Jane Morley and Karl-Eric
Michelson served imaginatively and faithfully as research assistants; Julie
Johnson not only assisted as a researcher, but she participated in the
selection and location of illustrations as well. At the Darmstadt Tech­
nische Hochschule, Wiltrud Ankenbrand was an extremely resourceful
research assistant. Elliot Sivowitch, a senior curator at the National Mu­
seum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, and Robert E. Kol­
lar, Chief Photographer of the Tennessee Valley Authority, proved
notably resourceful in helping with the selection of illustrations.
In Berlin at the Wissenschaftskolleg an informal reading group con­
sisting of Philip Fisher, Agatha Hughes, Timothy Lenoir, Elaine Scarry,
Fanny Waldman, and Elaine and Norton Wise commented perceptively
on several chapters. Students at the Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm were unusually encouraging when I shared with them selec­
tions from the book while it was in the making. Also in Sweden the
seminar in the history of science at Uppsala headed by Tore Frangsmyr,
the technology and society seminar at Lynköping, and the SCARSS