History of Modern American
Science and Technology
Session 2
• Comments on student comments from last
session
• American industrialization
• American science
Comments on Student Writings
• Glad that my points—critical thinking, learningcentered approach, different types of learners,
and current Obama science policy—came
through
• English: Get grammar right
• Verbs are key: correct this sentence
– “Science and technology should be put emphasis on
even during economic crisis for it can contributes to
creat more opportunities for people out of work.”
Overview of American History:
Early History
• Late 15th century-: European immigration to the
Americas; interactions with Native Americans
• 1776: American Revolution; Declaration of
Independence
– Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson
• 1787: US Constitution
– Patents to promote science
• 1861-1865: Civil War, Lincoln
– National Academy of Sciences, 1863
• 1865-1914: American industrialization
American History in the early 20th
century
• Progressive Era, late 1890s-1918
– Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation policy
• World War I: 1917-1918
– National Research Council
• New Deal, 1933-1941
• World War II
– Office of Scientific Research and Development
– Atomic Bomb
– Radar
Post-WWII
• Cold War
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Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing, 1945
Korean War, 1950-1953
Sputnik, 1957
Apollo Project, 1961-1969
Vietnam War, 1964-1974
Nixon’s China Trip, 1972
• Civil Rights Movement, 1950s and 1960s
– Women’s Movement
– Native American, Chicano, Asian American
movements
– Environmental Movement
End of Cold War
• 1989-1991: Reunification of Germany and
Breakup of the Soviet Union
• First Gulf War under G.H.W. Bush
• Informational Technological Revolution
– PC
– Internet
– Web
• Biomedical Technology
Post-9/11
• 9/11 and Its Impact
– Anti-Terrorism replaced Cold War
– Bio-terror defense
– Iraq War and Afghanistan War
• The Obama Era
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2008 Election
Economic Crisis
Global Warming
Energy
Health Care reform
American industrialization
• Thomas Hughes: Industrialization re-made
America
• Natural work to man-made world
• American genesis
• What’s important was not just new devices, but
new technological systems:
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Railroads
Telephone
Electrical Lighting
Automobiles
Sample comments
• Useful feedback
– Easier to understand me than Obama
– Obama has made great proposals, but it will be
interesting to see whether he can accomplish them
– Sounds like more physics-oriented; can write paper
on history of biology?
– Why learning about American science and
technology? Americanization of science and USChina scientific relations
– Room too stuffy to pay attention.
– How can there be no Ministry of Science and
Technology? OSTP
Science and Technology
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Improved science and education
American technological enthusiasm
Transition: from inventors to research labs
Military involvement in technological
development
Impact of industrialization
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Urbanization
Immigration
Political reform—populism and progressivism
Rise of experts
Conservation movement
American liberalism
Regulatory state
Discontent with technological society
Comparison and contrast with China today
Ideas for Term Papers
• “Shifts in American public perceptions of
science”: Search “science” in
http://www.time.com/time/magazine.
• Changing views of Rachel Carson
(www.time.com/time/magazine)
• Obama on global warming
(www.whitehouse.gov)
• Jim Hansen on global warming
(www.nytimes.com)