Nye 1
old
world ideas
beginning
of the industrial revolution in the US
12 "Apparent ability to explain historical events
and fuse them with cultural values."
second creation--using technology to reshape the land
how technology is making the world a better place
Nye is most interested in the simple stories--eg.
advertisements, travelers accounts--of how American became
great
European-educated intellectuals had a more mixed view
by mid 19th century some Americans were worrying about what
was lost to technological progress
- Thoreau was at times fairly anti-progress
- Emerson focuses on our minds, not technological progress, but
still falls sometimes into the belief in progress around him
narratives about the role of technology in national destiny
inevitability, destiny, naturalized
four kinds of stories:
- foundation narrative
- counter-narrative
- utopian story
- nostalgic tale
1984
Macintosh Ad
dividing land into a grid--National Survey
transportation and free market
mastery of force