America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives of New Beginnings

(Paperback)

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After 1776, the former American colonies began to re-imagine themselves as a unified, self-created community. Technologies had an important role in the resulting national narratives, and a few technologies assumed particular prominence. Among these were the axe, the mill, the canal, the railroad, and the irrigation dam. In this book David Nye explores the stories that clustered around these technologies. In doing so, he rediscovers an American story of origins, with America conceived as a second creation built in harmony with God's first creation. While mainstream Americans constructed technological foundation stories to explain their place in the New World, however, marginalised groups told other stories of destruction and loss. Native Americans protested the loss of their forests, fishermen resisted the construction of dams, and early environmentalists feared the exhaustion of resources. A water mill could be viewed as the kernel of a new community or as a new way to exploit labour. If passengers comprehended railways as part of a larger narrative about American expansion and progress, many farmers attacked railroad land grants. To explore these contradictions, Nye devotes alternating chapters to narratives of second creation and to narratives of those who rejected it. He draws on popular literature, speeches, advertisements, paintings, and many other media to create a history of American foundation stories.

Reviews

"Well imagined, meticulously researched, handsomely illustrated, and scrupulously fair." - New Scientist

Author Bio

David E. Nye, Professor of American Studies at Odense University in Denmark, is the author of Consuming Power (MIT Press, 1998), American Technological Sublime (MIT Press, 1998), Electrifying America (MIT Press, 1990), and Image Worlds (MIT Press, 1985).