American Technological Sublime

Nye (Center for American Studies, Odense U., Denmark) continues the exploration of the social construction of technology that he began in Electrifying America . He examines the continuing appeal of the "technological sublime" as a key to the nation's history, surveying some 200 years of large-scale technological projects in terms of their public value, and social and political contexts. Nye traces the pattern of changes in social attitudes to natural and technological wonders such as the Grand Canyon, the Empire State Building, the atom bomb, and the Apollo XI mission. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.