[( Narratives and Spaces: Technology and the Construction of American Culture )] [by: David Nye] [Jan-1998]

by David E. Nye

David Nye's Narratives and Spaces examines how photography, the railroad, electricity, space flight and the computer became central, yet often contradictory, parts of the way Americans construct and narrate their culture, whether as western settlers, consumers or tourists. The book provides an interdisciplinary perspective on topics at the centre of contemporary debate and draws on a wide range of cultural media. This is a significant contribution to American cultural history, and like David Nye's previous award-winning books, is written to be accessible to a wide audience.It is the first volume in a new UEP series, Representing American Culture. This series exists to publish lively, accessible and up-to-date studies of the culture of the United States. Whether devoted to topics in popular, middlebrow or high culture, books in the series explore the ways in which ideological assumptions may be seen to be represented. The series is edited by Mick Gidley, Professor of American Literature at the University of Leeds.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

David E. Nye is Professor of American History at the University of Southern Denmark. The winner of the 2005 Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology, he is the author of Image Worlds: Corporate Identities at General Electric, 1890-1930 (1985), Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940 (1990), American Technological Sublime (1994), Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies (1997), America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives of New Beginnings (2003), and Technology Matters: Questions to Live With (2006) published by the MIT Press.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Velgjort og velskrevet, men flere af kapitlerne var nok lidt uden for min interessesfære.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the themes and construction of the book were sound, and the facts supported Nye's theories, the second half of the book read as a series of statistics instead of an argument. The second chapter relied so heavily on one book that if you had not read that book it became dull quickly. Nye's self-referential conversation on the Historian's Problem also got old... but I found the construction of the American Landscape and the narrative of electricity in our society to be fascinating.