American technological sublime
By: David E. Nye.
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 362
Subjects: Technology -- Social aspects -- United States; Technology -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Technology -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Sublime, The
Description: American Technological Sublime is a study of the politics of perception in industrial society. Arranged chronologically, it suggests that the sublime itself has a history - that sublime experiences are emotional configurations that emerge from new social and technological conditions, and that each new configuration to some extent undermines and displaces the older versions.

After giving a short history of the sublime as an aesthetic category, Nye describes the reemergence and democratization of the concept in the early nineteenth century as an expression of the American sense of specialness.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [343]-354) and index.