Looking Back in Order to Move Forward: John McDermott, "Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals"

Cowan recalls his intellectual adventure as historian that has began during and because of that very distressing summer of 1969. He also examines John McDermott's Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals that has created a considerable impact on technological determinism. McDermott is articu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Technology and culture 2010-01, Vol.51 (1), p.199-215
Main Author: COWAN, RUTH SCHWARTZ
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CLASSICS REVISITED
Conferences
Culture
Determinism
Firearms
History
Ideology
Intellectuals
Learning
Marxism
McDermott, John
Middle Ages
Narcotics
New technology
Public libraries
Reading
Science
Scientists
Social change
Students
Teaching
Technological change
Technology
Vietnam War
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Summary:Cowan recalls his intellectual adventure as historian that has began during and because of that very distressing summer of 1969. He also examines John McDermott's Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals that has created a considerable impact on technological determinism. McDermott is articulating an entirely new perspective on modern technology--and, along the way, pillorying not only the Vietnam War, but also the new technologies with which it was being prosecuted, the scientists and engineers who had developed those technologies, and the defense intellectuals who had encouraged their efforts. This new perspective was nothing more nor less than a new dialectic for the twentieth century, replacing, but also building on, the dialectic that Marx had proposed for the nineteenth.
ISSN:0040-165X
1097-3729
1097-3729
DOI:10.1353/tech.0.0431