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Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology The Challenge of Change 1st Edition

SKU: 9780801454394

Original price was: $11.99.Current price is: $3.00.

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Additional information

Full Title

Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology The Challenge of Change 1st Edition

Author(s)

Merritt Roe Smith

Edition

1st Edition

ISBN

9780801454394, 9780801491818, 9780801409844, 9780801454400

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Format

PDF and EPUB

Description

Focusing on the day-to-day operations of the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, from 1798 to 1861, this book shows what the “new technology” of mechanized production meant in terms of organization, management, and worker morale. A local study of much more than local significance, it highlights the major problems of technical innovation and social adaptation in antebellum America. Merritt Roe Smith describes how positions of authority at the armory were tied to a larger network of political and economic influence in the community; how these relationships, in turn, affected managerial behavior; and how local social conditions reinforced the reactions of decision makers. He also demonstrates how craft traditions and variant attitudes toward work vis-à-vis New England created an atmosphere in which the machine was held suspect and inventive activity was hampered.Of central importance is the author’s analysis of the drastic differences between Harpers Ferry and its counterpart, the national armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, which played a pivotal role in the emergence of the new technology. The flow of technical information between the two armories, he shows, moved in one direction only— north to south. “In the end,” Smith concludes, “the stamina of local culture is paramount in explaining why the Harpers Ferry armory never really flourished as a center of technological innovation.”Pointing up the complexities of industrial change, this account of the Harpers Ferry experience challenges the commonly held view that Americans have always been eagerly receptive to new technological advances.

Availability: In Stock

Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology The Challenge of Change 1st Edition

SKU: 9780801454400

Original price was: $150.00.Current price is: $24.99.

Access Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology The Challenge of Change 1st Edition Now. Discount up to 90%

Categories: ,

Additional information

Full Title

Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology The Challenge of Change 1st Edition

Author(s)

Merritt Roe Smith

Edition

1st Edition

ISBN

9780801454400, 9780801491818, 9780801454394, 9780801409844

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Format

PDF and EPUB

Description

Focusing on the day-to-day operations of the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, from 1798 to 1861, this book shows what the “new technology” of mechanized production meant in terms of organization, management, and worker morale. A local study of much more than local significance, it highlights the major problems of technical innovation and social adaptation in antebellum America. Merritt Roe Smith describes how positions of authority at the armory were tied to a larger network of political and economic influence in the community; how these relationships, in turn, affected managerial behavior; and how local social conditions reinforced the reactions of decision makers. He also demonstrates how craft traditions and variant attitudes toward work vis-à-vis New England created an atmosphere in which the machine was held suspect and inventive activity was hampered.Of central importance is the author’s analysis of the drastic differences between Harpers Ferry and its counterpart, the national armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, which played a pivotal role in the emergence of the new technology. The flow of technical information between the two armories, he shows, moved in one direction only— north to south. “In the end,” Smith concludes, “the stamina of local culture is paramount in explaining why the Harpers Ferry armory never really flourished as a center of technological innovation.”Pointing up the complexities of industrial change, this account of the Harpers Ferry experience challenges the commonly held view that Americans have always been eagerly receptive to new technological advances.