The Mantra of Efficiency
Subtitle: From Waterwheel to Social Control
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: January 25, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780801886935
Subjects: History of ideas, intellectual history; History of science; Science; History - General History; Science/Mathematics; Europe; Africa - General; Europe - General; Social History; History / Africa; History; Industrial efficiency; Science and industry; Technological innovations
Description: "Efficiency - associated with individual discipline, superior management, and increased profits or productivity - often counts as one of the highest virtues in Western culture. But what does it mean, exactly, to be efficient? How did this concept evolve from a means for evaluating simple machines to the mantra of progress and a prerequisite for success?" "In this provocative and ambitious study, Jennifer Karns Alexander explores the growing power of efficiency in the post-industrial West. Examining the ways the concept has appeared in modern history - from a benign measure of the thermal economy of a machine to its widespread application to personal behaviors like chewing habits, spending choices, and shop floor movements to its controversial use as a measure of the business success of American slavery - she argues that beneath efficiency's seemingly endless variety lies a common theme: the pursuit of mastery through techniques of surveillance, discipline, and control." "Six historical case studies - two from Britain, one each from France and Germany, and two from the United States - illustrate the concept's fascinating development and provide context for the meanings of, and uses for, efficiency today and in the future."--Jacket.