America by Design : Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism

"An extraordinarily detailed and closely argued examination of the institutional devices that came to link management and engineering."--The New Republic"One of the best books of the last decade....It has that rare balance: quiet, cumulative power with bolts of lightning every few pages."--William Appleman Williams, Oregon State University"One of the outstanding works of radical social science of the 1970s."--Monthly Review Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. Technology as Social Production: Industry, Education, and Engineers 1 The Wedding of Science to the Useful Arts - I The Rise of Science- Based Industry 2 The Wedding of Science to the Useful Arts - II The Development of Technical Education 3 The Wedding of Science to the Useful Arts - III The Emergence of the Professional Engineer 4 Preservation Through Change Corporate Engineers and Social Reform Part Two. Corporate Reform as Conscious Social Production 5 Laying the Foundation Scientific and Industrial Standardization 6 The Corporation as Inventor Patent-Law Reform and Patent Monopoly 7 Science for Industry The Organization of Industrial and University Research 8 Technology as People The Industrial Process of Higher Education—I 9 Technology as People The Industrial Process of Higher Education—II 10 A Technology of Social Production Modern Management and the Expansion of Engineering Epilogue Notes Index Hailed a “significant contribution” by The New York Times, David Noble's book America by Design describes the factors that have shaped the history of scientific technology in the United States. Since the beginning, technology and industry have been undeniably intertwined, and Noble demonstrates how corporate capitalism has not only become the driving force behind the development of technology in this country but also how scientific research—particularly within universities—has been dominated by the corporations who fund it, who go so far as to influence the education of the engineers that will one day create the technology to be used for capitalist gain. Noble reveals that technology, often thought to be an independent science, has always been a means to an end for the men pulling the strings of Corporate America—and it was these men that laid down the plans for the design of the modern nation today. By David F. Noble. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.