Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Among the shards of American culture in the twentieth century, surely science and technology hold pride of place. Modern science is at least three centuries old, and technology is so ancient as to be a marker of the difference between human beings and other animals. Yet the past century is often thought of as uniquely characterized by these activities. If science and technology were not unique to the national experience in the twentieth century, they enjoyed a cultural authority which came to rival, if not surpass, that of the church or state. Science is widely seen as a privileged type of knowledge, transcending social relations and representing a “truth” superior to other forms of knowledge. For its part, technology has moved from the status of being a tool with which social goods can be produced to that of the most common measure of such goods.It is important to note, however, that science is a house with many mansions. At any one time not all sciences are equally exciting, honored, and supported; indeed, throughout American history one branch of science has usually been privileged over the others. In the nineteenth century, for example, the massive task of exploring the North American continent, and of inventorying and exploiting its vast natural resources, made the natural sciences, and especially geology, of signal importance. In the early twentieth century, and especially ... log in or subscribe to read full text