Tag Archives: Technology and Society

The Age of Steam

Posted on August 22, 2014 by smellincoffee

A Brief History of the Age of Steam© 2007 Thomas Crump288 pages For most of human history, transportation over land has been prohibitively expensive, limited to highly lucrative goods like silk. Trade grew from the rivers, as did civilization. But … Continue reading →

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More Work for Mother

Posted on May 5, 2014 by smellincoffee

More Work for Mother: the Ironies of American Housework © 1985 Ruth Cowan            288 pages        Throughout the 20thcentury,  households were transformed by a new abundance of labor-saving devices, from washing machines to toaster ovens, and processed … Continue reading →

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The Men Who United the States

Posted on December 27, 2013 by smellincoffee

 The Men Who United the States: America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible© 2013 Simon Winchester496 pages The Men who United the States is a storied account of how the American people came to … Continue reading →

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This week: Christmas reads, science in the city, and social telegraphy

Posted on December 24, 2013 by smellincoffee

Dear readers:             A blessed Yuletide and a merry Christmas to those of you in the northern hemisphere, as we celebrate the rebirth of the Sun – or the birth of the Son, if you prefer. The library is closing … Continue reading →

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The Box

Posted on October 8, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger© 2006 Marc Levinson376 pages It’s not every day an invention completely revolutionizes its industry, let alone the world. And yet that’s what the shipping container, … Continue reading →

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The Disappearance of Childhood

Posted on September 20, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Disappearance of Childhood©1982 Neil Postman177 pages Television is killing your children — conceptually. In 1985, Neil Postman penned Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which he, building off of the lesson in Technopoly that technology changes our culture without our knowledge, … Continue reading →

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What Are People For? (Comments & Selections)

Posted on August 19, 2013 by smellincoffee

What Are People For?© 1990, 2010 (2nd Edition) Wendell Berry210 pages Did the Lord say that machines oughta take the place of livin’? (“John Henry“, Johnny Cash) Wendell Berry is a softly outspoken critic of the triumph of inhumanity. What … Continue reading →

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The Unschooling Handbook

Posted on August 1, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child’s Classroom© 1998 Marry Griffith240 pages What does it mean to educate a child? In the United States, schooling is dominated by standards, by regular exams that force educators … Continue reading →

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The Long Emergency

Posted on June 2, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century© 2005 James Howard Kunstler336 pages Well, we’re in for it. Such is the lesson of The Long Emergency, which predicts that the … Continue reading →

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Never Done

Posted on June 1, 2013 by smellincoffee

Never Done: A History of American Housework © 1982 Susan Strasser 365 pages Every time I turn around there’s something else to do Cook a meal or mend a sock or sweep a floor or two… (“Gonna Be an Engineer”, … Continue reading →

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