Wiring Prometheus : globalisation, history and technology / edited by Peter Lyth and Helmuth Trischler.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lyth, Peter J.

Trischler, Helmuth.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic history--1990-.

Economic history.

Technological innovations.

Globalization.

Physical Description:

255 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Aarhus : Aarhus University Press, 2004.

Summary:

The editors of this volume point out that globalization calls for global history--history that treats the planet as a single complex entity. Several of the chapters address the origins of globalization's first wave in the nineteenth century, focusing on the interrelationship between economics and the spread of three pioneering inventions: the steam engine, the telegraph and the telephone. Others chronicle the late twentieth-century textile and bicycle industries, the development of the ATM machine, railroad modernization in France, major software disasters and the culturally empowering effects of the cassette tape. And three authors make fundamental arguments about the nature of globalization's changes: how the ties binding Europeans have evolved from patronage to connections to networks, how global interconnectedness has eliminated differences in the perception of time, and how the key to understanding the dynamics of globalization lies in the local application of standardized technology.

Contents:

Globalisation, History and Technology: An Introduction / Peter Lyth, Helmuth Trischler 7

Technology and Social Relations: From Patronage to Networks / Bruce Mazlish 21

Historical Precedents of Global Markets / Rainer Fremdling 35

Technology and Textiles Globalisation / Stephan H. Lindner 57

Production and Culture in the Global Cycle Industry / Paul Rosen 77

Global History and the Present Time / Wolf Schafer 103

Taking on the World: Bell, Edison and the Diffusion of the Telephone in the 1870s / W. Bernard Carlson 127

Towards a Global Telephone Network: Technological Advances in Long-Distance Telephony / Helge Kragh 149

A Passing Technology: The Automated Teller Machine / Richard Coopey 175

The Globalisation of Transport? Computerised Reservation Systems at American Airlines and French Railways / Nathalie N. Mitev 193

"Boardwalks across the Tar": Software Engineering and the Problems of Safety and Security / Donald MacKenzie 217

Audio Cassette Culture and Globalisation / Andre Millard 235.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

8772889470

OCLC:

55746443