Hon 400 - 1007

History of Technology

Spring Semester 2011

Room: BEH 218

Instructor: Prof. G. F. Mauer  Office: TBE-B 130

Announcements
Date Posted:  April 14, 2011
Second Midterm on Wed. April 20:  The exam will cover the lectures from Science 1600 to Computers. Pdf copies of these presentations are posted below. If you wish to see the slides in larger formats please let me know.

Last two seminar Presentations on Monday 4/18:

Seminar Pres. #9. Cultural Values and Growth.

Seminar Pres. #10. The economic impact of IT.

Written Seminar papers are due 4/25.

Reports: You may e-mail any assignment to me, or submit paper copies in class. If you choose e-mail, please send your report as an attachment. Please use the following convention for the filename: Lastname + assignment#. Example: Smith_rep3.doc.

 

Welcome to History of Technology The course will consist of lectures, short essay assignments and seminar presentations, see the syllabus for details. In addition to the discussion of historical innovations, we will focus on the impact of these technologies on humans, and on technologies'  interactions with society.

Textbook:

R.S. Kirby et al

.: Engineering in History, Dover Publ.

Dover Publ.

ISBN:  0486264122
 

Part I: Lecture
Hon 400-1007 Syllabus (click on image at right): Schedule, Policies, Homework. The syllabus will be updated frequently during the semester.

 

 

Part II: Seminar Topics
LAST NAME  / FIRST NAME    Seminar Topic
Tess Fosburgh 1. The Renaissance Period and the Origins of Science. Explore the societal and technological conditions that led Galileo and others to embrace science as a concept.
Jino Soriano 2. Technology and Capitalism: Why did the industrial revolution start in England? March 2
Kyler Nelson 3. Karl Marx's Response to the Industrial Revolution. March 2
Joshua Herrera 4. The Role of Industrial Manufacturing in the Northern States in the US Civil War. week of March 7
Adam Wurtzel  11. Moore's Law: The rate of change of technical development. week of March 21
James Phan 8. Science and Religion:  Facts and Perceptions. week of April 11
Anja Crawford 7. Mass Media and Social Control. Explore the means (technologies) for distributing information, the role of contemporary mass media in shaping societal norms and expectations. week of April 11
Kaitlin Peck 9. The Impact of Cultural Values on Economic Growth. week of April 18
David Bell 10. The economic impact of information technology.  week of April 18

Please send an e-mail with 2  topic preferences to georg.mauer@unlv.edu. I will update the table above daily. Assignments will be made in the order  received.
Please read the notes on seminar papers in the syllabus. For all topics: It will not suffice to describe a technology. In all papers, please identify the forces driving the technology, and its impacts -sometimes undesired- on society. In the case of technologies with significant impact, you should limit your discussion  of societal effects to perhaps one major aspect , e.g. environmental effects, labor relations, consumer safety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part III: Reading Assignments and Lecture Notes

 

The Millennium's Top 40

Take a look at this beautiful page out of Gutenberg's bible. File size: 450KB!

Article: Problems and Pitfalls in the History of Technology

Some Web References for Science and Engineering

Here  and here are two newspaper articles on 'Creationism' and 'Intelligent Design'. Read them and determine to what extent the arguments advanced by the authors are valid.

The Powerpoint slide shows in class are converted  every week to PDF format.

Please note: Password is required to access pdf files
You have a choice between the full page slides and handouts. The handout files contain up to six Powerpoint slides per printed page.

 

Link  

Handouts

1

his-Intro.pdf .

file sizes range between approx. 6 MBytes and 15 Mbytes

  

his-Intro-notes.pdf

2

 Ch2-orig.pdf Ch2-orig-notes.pdf

3

 Egypt.pdf Ch2-Egypt-notes.pdf

4

 Greece1.pdf Greece1notes.pdf

5

 Gr_Sci.pdf Gr_Sci-notes.pdf

6

 Rome.pdf Rome-notes.pdf

7

 Rome_Civ.pdf Rome_Civ-notes.pdf
  Med_to_Renaiss.pdf med_to_Renaiss-notes.pdf

8

   sci_1600.pdf

9

   steam&nukes.pdf

10

   industri_rev.pdf
11   Manufact.pdf
12   IC_Engines.pdf
13   Computers.pdf
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