Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological Change by Rosalind Williams (Engl

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A humanistic account of the changing role of technology in society, by a historian and a former Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education at MIT.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

A humanistic account of the changing role of technology in society, by a historian and a former Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education at MIT.When Warren Kendall Lewis left Spring Garden Farm in Delaware in 1901 to enter MIT, he had no idea that he was becoming part of a profession that would bring untold good to his country but would also contribute to the death of his family's farm. In this book written a century later, Professor Lewis's granddaughter, a cultural historian who has served in the administration of MIT, uses her grandfather's and her own experience to make sense of the rapidly changing role of technology in contemporary life.Rosalind Williams served as Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education at MIT from 1995 through 2000. From this vantage point, she watched a wave of changes, some planned and some unexpected, transform many aspects of social and working life-from how students are taught to how research and accounting are done-at this major site of technological innovation. In Retooling, she uses this local knowledge to draw more general insights into contemporary society's obsession with technology.Today technology-driven change defines human desires, anxieties, memories, imagination, and experiences of time and space in unprecedented ways. But technology, and specifically information technology, does not simply influence culture and society; it is itself inherently cultural and social. If there is to be any reconciliation between technological change and community, Williams argues, it will come from connecting technological and social innovation-a connection demonstrated in the history that unfolds in this absorbing book.

Author Biography

Rosalind Williams is Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology.

Review

We have Williams to thank for a thoughtful, cogent, and historically well-informed analysis of the engineering profession.—Karl Stephan, IEEE

Promotional

In Retooling, Rosalind Williams has written a book that darts across genres as she grapples with the meaning of contemporary engineering through the lens of MIT. Williams's perspective is current, vivid, and smart, framed by a strong sense of where the Institute has been and where it is heading now, even as the institution faces tough internal debates about the role of work, enterprise, and teaching. The status of women faculty, student suicides, and the events of September 11 figure alongside arguments about the meaning of re-engineering and virtual learning. Throughout, Williams offers us a complex vision of engineering from the central administration of one of its great citadels. -- Peter Galison, Mallinckrodt Professor of the History of Science and of Physics, Harvard University

Prizes

Winner of Winner, Jackets Category, 2003 Association of American University Presses (AAUP) Book, Jacket, and Journal Show 2003

Review Text

"Rosalind Williams ... has written a very personal, autobiographical book." - Paul E. Ceruzzi, Isis

Review Quote

"We have Williams to thank for a thoughtful, cogent, and historically well-informedanalysis of the engineering profession." Karl Stephan IEEE

Promotional "Headline"

"... a fascinating account of the new relationships between technology and culture ... a literary jewel." -- Manuel Castells, Project Muse

Details ISBN0262731630 Author Rosalind Williams Short Title RETOOLING Language English ISBN-10 0262731630 ISBN-13 9780262731638 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2003 Imprint MIT Press Subtitle A Historian Confronts Technological Change Place of Publication Cambridge, Mass. Country of Publication United States Audience Age 18 Pages 270 Position Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science & Technology Affiliation Massachusetts Institute of Technology Series MIT Press DOI 10.1604/9780262731638 AU Release Date 2003-08-11 NZ Release Date 2003-08-11 US Release Date 2003-08-11 UK Release Date 2003-08-11 Publisher MIT Press Ltd Publication Date 2003-08-11 Alternative 9780262232234 DEWEY 303.4830973 Audience Undergraduate We've got this

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