Early American Technology: Making and Doing Things from the Colonial Era to 1850.

This work is a collection of interpretive and historical essays on American technology before 1850, a time period given relatively little attention by scholars. The purpose of the volume is not only to illuminate the wide range of technologies in use during this era, but also to stimulate more interest in early American technology. The book's three introductory chapters are followed by eight essays, each highlighting a particular technology. The mid-Atlantic region, with its well-developed urban sectors, diverse industrial base, and frontier agriculture, provides the geographical focus for most of the historical essays. A lengthy bibliography follows, providing the reader with an extensive listing of source material.

Although the reader is well into the book before completing the introductory chapters, each contributes importantly to understanding early American technological history. In her overview, editor Judith McGaw offers a working definition of technology that includes not only the tools used for a particular technology, but also encompasses the skills, knowledge and decision-making necessary to employ these tools. McGaw describes the difficulty of "experiencing" early American technology, which necessitates reconciling the different legal, political, and economic systems of the colonial and early national eras. It also requires working with fragmentary historical records, and perhaps most importantly, learning a new language by which Americans comprehended the use of technology. It is understanding the knowledge base by which these tools are used to make and do things that enables one to "experience" early American technology.

In the essay that follows, Robert Post outlines the intellectual debate in the historiography of technology over the last 30 years, notably, the collapse of consensus among historians that technology is ultimately beneficient and that the artifacts of technology can be synthesized as intellectual advancement; an alternative historical viewpoint has emerged which emphasizes the class conflict - and failures - that have arisen along with the use of technology. Brook Hindle's 1966 essay, reprinted in this volume, still deserves close attention. In it, he illuminates how various multidisciplinary approaches have enriched the study of technology, and examines the motivations to innovate behind the practitioners of technology.

The common feature of the historical essays that follow is to examine "ordinary" applications of technology to everyday life on the farm or in the city. McGaw sums up the unique contribution of this work: "[T]his collection favors the quotidian, whereas previous scholarship has often featured the exceptional: the leading sector, the large enterprise, the heroic inventor, the science-based development" [p. 9]. This volume highlights technologies commonly overlooked by researchers, such as controlling family size, choosing the most appropriate farm tools, designing and maintaining roads, and preserving food. While all of the essays are consistent in terms of the high quality of their research and skillful explanation of their subject matter, two chapters provide particularly interesting examples of 18th century technology.

Susan Klepp's essay on 18th century contraceptive and abortive technology demonstrates that these practices can only be understood if one learns the contemporary language in which fertility control was spoken. As Klepp explains it,

The scarce historical references to abortion, infanticide, and contraceptive practice are better indicators of contemporary standards of public decorum than they are trustworthy guides to private practices. Contraception, birth control, and family planning are not eighteenth-century concepts, and so it should not be surprising that these terms do not appear. Much of eighteenth-century fertility control is hidden behind euphemisms and now-lost medical definitions [p. 70].

Klepp's research, which makes use of private letters, diaries and contemporary medical literature, reveals that various contraceptive and/or abortive techniques had a significant impact on limiting the number of children, although the primary objective of fertility control was to restore women's physical and emotional health by lengthening the duration between births - rather than to conform to an ideal family size.

Michal McMahon's exposition on the treatment of Dock Creek illustrates the tension between public and private uses of land and waterways during the early and mid 18th century. Dock Creek, a waterway and marshy watershed in the commercial district of Philadelphia that emptied into a cove along the Delaware River, was used by numerous processing operations - tanyards, distilleries, and slaughterhouses - and complaints about its filth and pollution were voiced from the early eighteenth century. In 1739, an unsuccessful petition urged that tanyards, viewed as the chief polluters, move out of the Dock area. A decade later, a major public works proposal, which went unheeded, would have allowed industry to remain along the Dock; dredging was recommended to improve drainage. By 1760, after decades of environmental neglect and extended settlement in the watershed area, there was lessened pressure for preserving the Dock or its watershed. Ultimately a purely technological solution was chosen: the Dock would be arched over and covered and in 50 years was to be converted into the city's sewer and drainage system. As McMahon concludes, "The loss of the Dock and creek reflects the narrow set of values that have shaped American settlement patterns. Public ends are transformed by the aims of a private order, social and environmental goals are submerged in mechanistic solutions . . ." [p. 147].

Other essays are equally meritous. Among the more relevant to economic historians is Donald Jackson's discussion of southeastern Pennsylvania turnpikes as well as Robert Gordon's exposition on the environmental and social cost of anthracite mining. Jackson's research contributes importantly to the understanding of early American transportation technology by making the case that turnpikes were not mere precursors to canal and rail transport; turnpikes contributed importantly to the overall transportation network and it was not unusual for turnpikes to remain (modestly) profitable well into the decade of the 1840s. Gordon demonstrates convincingly that the geographic isolation of anthracite mining, the structure of mine ownership and control, and improvements in transportation allowed the social and environmental costs of mining to be concentrated in the mining areas while the benefits of coal were received elsewhere.

Although this work finds its niche in the history of technology, students of economic history and early American history will find this volume of great value because it offers a broader perspective of the role of technology in shaping American society and the course of economic development. Portions of the book could serve as a useful supplement to a standard upper level American economic history course.

Cindy A. Jacobs Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control and Trinity College, Hartford