Power Struggles by Michael Schiffer

Power Struggles by Michael Schiffer

The development of electrical technologies that laid the foundation for Edison's work: their invention, commercialization, and adoption.

In 1882, Thomas Edison and his Edison Electric Light Company unveiled the first large-scale electrical system in the world to light a stretch of offices in a city. This was a monumental achievement, but it was not the beginning of the electrical age. The first electric generators were built in the 1830s, the earliest commercial lighting systems before 1860, and the first commercial application of generator-powered lights (in lighthouses) in the early 1860s. In Power Struggles, Michael Brian Schiffer examines some of these earlier efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, that paved the way for Edison. After laying out a unified theoretical framework for understanding technological change, Schiffer presents a series of fascinating case studies of pre-Edison electrical technologies, including Volta's electrochemical battery, the blacksmith's electric motor, the first mechanical generators, Morse's telegraph, the Atlantic cable, and the lighting of the Capitol dome. Schiffer discusses claims of practicality and impracticality (sometimes hotly contested) made for these technologies, and examines the central role of the scientific authority-- in particular, the activities of Joseph Henry, mid-nineteenth-century America's foremost scientist--in determining the fate of particular technologies. These emerging electrical technologies formed the foundation of the modern industrial world. Schiffer shows how and why they became commercial products in the context of an evolving corporate capitalism in which conflicting judgments of practicality sometimes turned into power struggles.

Michael Brian Schiffer is the Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. During his long professional career, now approaching four decades, he has conducted many and varied studies that have contributed to the approach, construction, and content of this manual. In 1983 he initiated a program of experimental archaeology at the University of Arizona, have published many experiments on ceramic technology, and for nearly 30 years taught a course on experimental archaeology. He has contributed to the theory and method of ethnoarchaeology and supervised several important ethnoarchaeological dissertations. He was also a pioneer in the study of modern material culture. The philosophy of archaeology has also been one of his interests, which has led to a better understanding of the kinds of knowledge that science produces and their relationships to archaeological research. He has published an artifact-based theory of human communication, engaged the recent history of American archaeology, and published copiously on diverse topics of archaeological method and theory. In addition, he has done extensive research on the history of electrical and electronic science and technology, culminating in four books. And he has written a book about the study of technological change in which the role of scientific knowledge looms large; indeed, some of the ideas in that book have loud echoes in the manual. In short, because of his varied interests and eagerness to delve into new subject areas, he is well situated to pull off this manual.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262516167
ISBN 10	0262516160
Title	Power Struggles
Author	Michael Schiffer
Series	Power Struggles
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	The Mit Press
Year published	2011-01-21
Number of pages	432
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable