Early American technology
Subtitle: making and doing things from the colonial era to 1850
By: edited by Judith A. McGaw.
Contributors: McGaw, Judith A., 1946-
Publisher: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press; The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Chapel Hill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 482
Subjects: Technology -- United States -- History -- 18th century; Technology -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Description: This collection of original essays documents technology's centrality to the history of early America.

Unlike much previous scholarship, this volume emphasizes the quotidian rather than the exceptional: the farm household seeking to preserve food or acquire tools, the surveyor balancing economic and technical considerations while laying out a turnpike, the woman of child-bearing age employing herbal contraceptives, and the neighbors of a polluted urban stream debating issues of property, odor, and health.

These cases and others drawn from brewing, mining, farming, and woodworking enable the authors to address recent historiographic concerns, including the environmental aspects of technological change and the gendered nature of technical knowledge. Brooke Hindle's classic 1966 essay on early American technology is also reprinted, and his view of the field is reassessed. A bibliographical essay and summary of Hindle's bibliographic findings conclude the volume.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 358-460) and index.