Difference between revisions of "325--2011--Week 2 Questions/Comments"
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I thought it was interesting how McGraw approached early technology. She makes a point to detail what exactly technology could be/could have been which really surprised me with her definitions. Generally, in thinking of technology, I only really think of tools, but she made it clear that not only tools, but land organization, plant and animal behavior, and the understandings of both were included in the early technology of the colonies, just to name a few. '''It was also interesting to see which factors actually influenced the growth of technology in the colonies during this time, such as ethnic background, rise of the market economy, selective tech transfer from Europe, and how much the frontier influenced the industrialization of America'''. I would have never thought that the frontier could have in any way influenced the industrialization at all, but McGraw makes that clear in her essay. I also wondered why there was such a selection in tech transfer from Europe, but with immigrants from different countries, an established technology by one of the various countries is obviously going to be more favorable than some of the others. -Claire B. | I thought it was interesting how McGraw approached early technology. She makes a point to detail what exactly technology could be/could have been which really surprised me with her definitions. Generally, in thinking of technology, I only really think of tools, but she made it clear that not only tools, but land organization, plant and animal behavior, and the understandings of both were included in the early technology of the colonies, just to name a few. '''It was also interesting to see which factors actually influenced the growth of technology in the colonies during this time, such as ethnic background, rise of the market economy, selective tech transfer from Europe, and how much the frontier influenced the industrialization of America'''. I would have never thought that the frontier could have in any way influenced the industrialization at all, but McGraw makes that clear in her essay. I also wondered why there was such a selection in tech transfer from Europe, but with immigrants from different countries, an established technology by one of the various countries is obviously going to be more favorable than some of the others. -Claire B. | ||
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| + | I have learned over the last few years of taking history courses to no longer assume that the beliefs or views on history that I have learned over the years growing up are accurate. In Mcgaw’s article she points out the differences between the data she has collected on tool ownership in the eighteenth century in the mid Atlantic, and our established notions of tool ownership at that time. It was incredibly interesting to learn that 20 percent of colonial homes lacked a kettle or a pot. Even more so, that only 60 percent of frontiersmen owned firearms. I find it extremely hard to picture a frontiersman battling the wilderness without a gun. Then again, perhaps all a frontiersman needed was his trusty axe. -Kathleen Mead | ||
== Leo Marx's "The Machine" == | == Leo Marx's "The Machine" == | ||
