{"product_id":"men-machines-and-modern-times-elting-e-morison-9780262529310","title":"Men, Machines, and Modern Times, 50th Anniversary Edition","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn engaging look at how we have learned to live with innovation and new technologies through history.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeople have had trouble adapting to new technology ever since (perhaps) the inventor of the wheel had to explain that a wheelbarrow could carry more than a person. This little book by a celebrated MIT professor--the fiftieth anniversary edition of a classic--describes how we learn to live and work with innovation. Elting Morison considers, among other things, the three stages of users' resistance to change: ignoring it; rational rebuttal; and name-calling. He recounts the illustrative anecdote of the World War II artillerymen who stood still to hold the horses despite the fact that the guns were now hitched to trucks--reassuring those of us who have trouble with a new interface or a software upgrade that we are not the first to encounter such problems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMorison offers an entertaining series of historical accounts to highlight his major theme: the nature of technological change and society's reaction to that change. He begins with resistance to innovation in the U.S. Navy following an officer's discovery of a more accurate way to fire a gun at sea; continues with thoughts about bureaucracy, paperwork, and card files; touches on rumble seats, the ghost in \u003ci\u003eHamlet\u003c\/i\u003e, and computers; tells the strange history of a new model steamship in the 1860s; and describes the development of the Bessemer steel process. Each instance teaches a lesson about the more profound and current problem of how to organize and manage systems of ideas, energies, and machinery so that it will conform to the human dimension.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Elting E. Morison\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0262529319\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780262529310\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e MIT Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/26\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 344\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 6.30h x 4.10w x 0.60d","brand":"Elting E. Morison","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43913519726847,"sku":"9780262529310","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_2f7f7fdc-f2c7-404c-881d-ec739ba7072e.jpg?v=1680620814","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/men-machines-and-modern-times-elting-e-morison-9780262529310","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}