Download or read book Flight in America 1900 1983 written by Roger E. Bilstein and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive survey of the history of American aeronautics and space flight.
Download or read book Reader s Guide to American History written by Peter J. Parish and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 917 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are so many books on so many aspects of the history of the United States, offering such a wide variety of interpretations, that students, teachers, scholars, and librarians often need help and advice on how to find what they want. The Reader's Guide to American History is designed to meet that need by adopting a new and constructive approach to the appreciation of this rich historiography. Each of the 600 entries on topics in political, social and economic history describes and evaluates some 6 to 12 books on the topic, providing guidance to the reader on everything from broad surveys and interpretive works to specialized monographs. The entries are devoted to events and individuals, as well as broader themes, and are written by a team of well over 200 contributors, all scholars of American history.
Download or read book Skylark written by Howard Mansfield and published by UPNE. This book was released on 1999 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The biography of one of the great pioneers in Americn aviation chasing the dream of flight.
Download or read book Science and Technology in 20th Century American Life written by Christopher Cumo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twentieth century witnessed the greatest changes in technology and science that humans have ever witnessed. These occurred rapidly and affected such a broad range of people. Scientists, inventors, and engineers built upon the great inventions of the 19th century to expand the reach of modern technology - for a citizen in 1900, communication, transportation, and agricultural was still primarily local activities; by 2000, an American citizen was part of an interconnected global community. These developments in science and technology were also important in the social and cultural changes of the period. The Great Depression, the World Wars and Cold War, the civil rights and women's rights movements - all were greatly impacted by the rapid scientific and technological advancements in the universities and industry.
Download or read book Dark Star written by Matthew H. Hersch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-12-26 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A captivating history of NASA’s Space Transportation System—the space shuttle—chronicling the inevitable failures of a doomed design. In Dark Star, Matthew Hersch challenges the existing narrative of the most significant human space program of the last 50 years, NASA’s space shuttle. He begins with the origins of the space shuttle: a century-long effort to develop a low-cost, reusable, rocket-powered airplane to militarize and commercialize space travel, which Hersch explains was built the wrong way, at the wrong time, and for all the wrong reasons. Describing the unique circumstances that led to the space shuttle’s creation by President Richard Nixon’s administration in 1972 and its subsequent flights from 1981 through 2011, Hersch illustrates how the space shuttle was doomed from the start. While most historians have accepted the view that the space shuttle’s fatal accidents—including the 1986 Challenger explosion—resulted from deficiencies in NASA’s management culture that lulled engineers into a false confidence in the craft, Dark Star reveals the widespread understanding that the shuttle was predestined for failure as a technology demonstrator. The vehicle was intended only to give the United States the appearance of a viable human spaceflight program until funds became available to eliminate its obvious flaws. Hersch’s work seeks to answer the perilous questions of technological choice that confront every generation, and it is a critical read for anyone interested in how we can create a better world through the things we build.
Download or read book Arsenal of Defense written by J'Nell L. Pate and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named after Mexican War general William Jenkins Worth, Fort Worth began as a military post in 1849. More than a century and a half later, the defense industry remains Fort Worth’s major strength with Lockheed Martin’s F-35s and Bell Helicopter’s Ospreys flying the skies over the city. Arsenal of Defense: Fort Worth’s Military Legacy covers the entire military history of Fort Worth from the 1840s with tiny Bird’s Fort to the massive defense plants of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Although the city is popularly known as “Cowtown” for its iconic cattle drives and stockyards, soldiers, pilots, and military installations have been just as important—and more enduring—in Fort Worth’s legacy. Although Bird’s Fort provided defense for early North Texas settlers in the mid nineteenth century, it was the major world conflicts of the twentieth century that developed Fort Worth’s military presence into what it is today. America’s buildup for World War I brought three pilot training fields and the army post Camp. During World War II, headquarters for the entire nation’s Army Air Forces Flying Training Command came to Fort Worth. The military history of Fort Worth has been largely an aviation story—one that went beyond pilot training to the construction of military aircraft. Beginning with Globe Aircraft in 1940, Consolidated in 1942, and Bell Helicopter in 1950, the city has produced many thousands of military aircraft for the defense of the nation. Lockheed Martin, the descendant of Consolidated, represents an assembly plant that has been in continuous existence for over seven decades. With Lockheed Martin the nation’s largest defense contractor, Bell the largest helicopter producer, and the Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Federal Medical Center Carswell the reservist’s training pattern for the nation, Fort Worth’s military defense legacy remains strong. Arsenal of Defense won first place in the Press Women of Texas Communications Contest (2012).
Download or read book A History of the Future written by Peter J. Bowler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-02 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging survey, Peter J. Bowler explores the phenomenon of futurology: predictions about the future development and impact of science and technology on society and culture in the twentieth century. Utilising science fiction, popular science literature and the novels of the literary elite, Bowler highlights contested responses to the potential for revolutionary social change brought about by real and imagined scientific innovations. Charting the effect of social and military developments on attitudes towards innovation in Europe and America, Bowler shows how conflict between the enthusiasm of technocrats and the pessimism of their critics was presented to the public in books, magazines and exhibitions, and on the radio and television. A series of case studies reveals the impact of technologies such as radio, aviation, space exploration and genetics, exploring rivalries between innovators and the often unexpected outcome of their efforts to produce mechanisms and machines that could change the world.
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of New York City written by Kenneth T. Jackson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 4282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering an exhaustive range of information about the five boroughs, the first edition of The Encyclopedia of New York City was a success by every measure, earning worldwide acclaim and several awards for reference excellence, and selling out its first printing before it was officially published. But much has changed since the volume first appeared in 1995: the World Trade Center no longer dominates the skyline, a billionaire businessman has become an unlikely three-term mayor, and urban regeneration—Chelsea Piers, the High Line, DUMBO, Williamsburg, the South Bronx, the Lower East Side—has become commonplace. To reflect such innovation and change, this definitive, one-volume resource on the city has been completely revised and expanded. The revised edition includes 800 new entries that help complete the story of New York: from Air Train to E-ZPass, from September 11 to public order. The new material includes broader coverage of subject areas previously underserved as well as new maps and illustrations. Virtually all existing entries—spanning architecture, politics, business, sports, the arts, and more—have been updated to reflect the impact of the past two decades. The more than 5,000 alphabetical entries and 700 illustrations of the second edition of The Encyclopedia of New York City convey the richness and diversity of its subject in great breadth and detail, and will continue to serve as an indispensable tool for everyone who has even a passing interest in the American metropolis.
Download or read book Jet Age Aesthetic written by Vanessa R. Schwartz and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-21 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning look at the profound impact of the jet plane on the mid-century aesthetic, from Disneyland to Life magazine Vanessa R. Schwartz engagingly presents the jet plane’s power to define a new age at a critical moment in the mid-20th century, arguing that the craft’s speed and smooth ride allowed people to imagine themselves living in the future. Exploring realms as diverse as airport architecture, theme park design, film, and photography, Schwartz argues that the jet created an aesthetic that circulated on the ground below. Visual and media culture, including Eero Saarinen’s airports, David Bailey’s photographs of the jet set, and Ernst Haas’s experiments in color photojournalism glamorized the imagery of motion. Drawing on unprecedented access to the archives of The Walt Disney Studios, Schwartz also examines the period’s most successful example of fluid motion meeting media culture: Disneyland. The park’s dedication to “people-moving” defined Walt Disney’s vision, shaping the very identity of the place. The jet age aesthetic laid the groundwork for our contemporary media culture, in which motion is so fluid that we can surf the internet while going nowhere at all.
Download or read book The Bishop s Boys A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright written by Tom D. Crouch and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1989 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of how the two inventors were guided by their father, the years leading to the triumph of practical flight, and the death of Orville in 1948.
Download or read book Millikan s School A History of the California Institute of Technology written by Judith Goodstein and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2020-10-19 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In November 1891, wealthy former abolitionist and Chicago politician Amos Throop founded a thoroughly undistinguished small college in Pasadena, California, which he named after himself. Millikan’s School is the history of this institution that stands today at the pinnacle of world academics, with 300 full-time faculty, nearly 1,000 undergraduate, 1,250 graduate students and 39 Caltech and alumni Nobel Prize recipients. Although Amos Throop — the name of the college was changed to Caltech in 1920 — could not have realized the importance of geography, the fact that Pasadena lay at the foot of Mount Wilson, was central to its success: astronomer George Ellery Hale built his telescope there in 1902, the finest at that time in the world. Later Hale joined the board of trustees of the struggling school and persuaded Arthur Amos Noyes, former president of MIT and the nation’s leading physical chemist, to join him in Pasadena. The third member of Caltech’s founding troika was renowned physicist Robert A. Millikan from the University of Chicago. The dedication of Caltech in 1920 and the proclamation of what it stood for in science and education set the stage for Millikan, who functioned as the school’s president, to bring the best and the brightest from all over the world — Theodore von Kármán in aeronautics, Thomas Hunt Morgan in biology, Paul Sophus Epstein in physics, Beno Gutenberg in seismology, Linus Pauling in chemistry — to Pasadena to work in an ever larger number of areas in science and technology. The book also covers the funding, planning and construction of the 200-inch telescope on Palomar Mountain, Willy Fowler’s work in nuclear astrophysics and the wartime rocket experiments that grew into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), today the world leader in deep-space exploration. “Millikan’s School presents an interesting and thoroughly reliable account of the astonishing change over a period of a few years of a small technical school in Pasadena, California, into one of the world’s leading scientific institutions. “ — Linus Pauling “In Millikan’s School, Judith Goodstein tells the remarkable story of the rise of Caltech... She details how Millikan, aided by Hale and Arthur Amos Noyes, America’s leading physical chemist and another of Hale’s inspired acquisitions, took a former trade school and forged from it a ‘grandiose university among the orange groves’... It would be impossible, while reading Goodstein’s lively account, not to be impressed by the energy, drive and boundless enthusiasm of men like Millikan, Hale and Noyes... [who] had the bare-faced audacity to set about building an institute to rival the cream of the universities of Europe and America.” — Marcus Chown, New Scientist “[Goodstein’s] story is first and foremost the tale of three men: the astronomer George Ellery Hale, the chemist Alfred Noyes, and the physicist Robert Millikan. It is the story of their attempts to transform an undistinguished little school founded in 1891... into a world-class scientific establishment... [A] useful book.” — Tony Rothman, Science “In Millikan’s School, the story of Throop [University]’s transformation into Caltech is told with precision... Judith Goodstein’s history offers a quick tour of the landmarks of science in the mid-20th Century and a glance at how pure science puts itself at the service of government, commerce and the military... Goodstein... approaches her subject with a healthy sense of humor and an acute sense of academic politics. She tells a wonderful story about how Caltech lost to Princeton in a bidding war over the services of Albert Einstein, for example... To her credit, Goodstein asks the hard question: ‘What is the best way to do science?’... Millikan’s School offers enough hard data to enable us to come to our own conclusions.” — Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times “A cleanly written, scientifically well informed account of one of the world’s foremost institutions for science and technology.” — Ed Regis, Nature “Relying on archival material, published secondary sources, and interviews with institute scientists, Goodstein presents a highly readable account of Caltech’s beginnings at the turn of the century... substantive, informative, and a good read.” — Rebecca S. Lowen, Technology and Culture “As a history of science, this book is well crafted. Orderly in its flow, it is not only a tribute to Millikan, but also places him within the development of physics as a field.” — Andrew Rolle, Southern California Quarterly “A fascinating history that speaks to issues far larger than Cal Tech itself... This well-written and honest account (witness the many cited instances of anti-Semitism in the scientific world) is both a good read and a sobering reminder that big science and top schools are not brought by storks.” — Carroll Pursell, History of Education Quarterly “The author focuses on the personalities and the research fields of the principal scientific figures... The [...] emphasis on personalities, and capsule surveys of relevant scientific fields produce a book that can be apprehended by a wide audience.” — Roger Geiger, Isis “This chronicle offers glimpses of the passion and drive that have motivated a roster of distinguished scientists.” — Publishers Weekly “A lively tale... [Goodstein’s] individual profiles are lean and candid; her background on subjects as diverse as nuclear astrophysics, seismology, aeronautical design, quantum mechanics and rocket fuel are crisp and understandable... With a light style... and meticulous documentation, Goodstein has produced a tale worthy of her subject... “ — Marshall Robinson, Foundation News “A distinguished and uniquely American institution has found its chronicler and its chronicle in Judith Goodstein’s thorough but compact story of Millikan ‘s School. The emergence of Caltech as a powerhouse of science and engineering and a makeweight in the technological advancement of 20th century industry is both beautifully and reliably presented.” — Harry Woolf, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
Download or read book To Fill the Skies with Pilots written by Dominick A. Pisano and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Launched in 1939, the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was one of the largest government-sponsored vocational education programs of its time. In To Fill the Skies with Pilots, Dominick A. Pisano explores the successes and failures of the program, from its conception as a hybrid civilian-military mandate in peacetime, through the war years, and into the immediate postwar period. As originally conceived, the CPTP would serve both war-preparedness goals and New Deal economic ends. Using the facilities of colleges, universities, and commercial flying schools, the CPTP was designed to provide a pool of civilian pilots for military service in the event of war. The program also sought to give an economic boost to the light-plane industry and the network of small airports and support services associated with civilian aviation. As Pisano demonstrates, the CPTP's multiple objectives ultimately contributed to its demise. Although the program did train tens of thousands of pilots who later flew during the war (mostly in noncombat missions), military leaders faulted the project for not being more in line with specific recruitment and training needs. After attempting to adjust to these needs, the CPTP then faced a difficult and ultimately unsuccessful transition back to civilian purposes in the postwar era. By charting the history of the CPTP, Pisano sheds new light on the politics of aviation during these pivotal years as well as on civil-military relations and New Deal policy making.
Download or read book The Navigator written by and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An All Consuming Century written by Gary Cross and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2000-09-14 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unqualified victory of consumerism in America was not a foregone conclusion. The United States has traditionally been the home of the most aggressive and often thoughtful criticism of consumption, including Puritanism, Prohibition, the simplicity movement, the '60s hippies, and the consumer rights movement. But at the dawn of the twenty-first century, not only has American consumerism triumphed, there isn't even an "ism" left to challenge it. An All-Consuming Century is a rich history of how market goods came to dominate American life over that remarkable hundred years between 1900 and 2000 and why for the first time in history there are no practical limits to consumerism. By 1930 a distinct consumer society had emerged in the United States in which the taste, speed, control, and comfort of goods offered new meanings of freedom, thus laying the groundwork for a full-scale ideology of consumer's democracy after World War II. From the introduction of Henry Ford's Model T ("so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one") and the innovations in selling that arrived with the department store (window displays, self service, the installment plan) to the development of new arenas for spending (amusement parks, penny arcades, baseball parks, and dance halls), Americans embraced the new culture of commercialism—with reservations. However, Gary Cross shows that even the Depression, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the inflation of the 1970s made Americans more materialistic, opening new channels of desire and offering opportunities for more innovative and aggressive marketing. The conservative upsurge of the 1980s and '90s indulged in its own brand of self-aggrandizement by promoting unrestricted markets. The consumerism of today, thriving and largely unchecked, no longer brings families and communities together; instead, it increasingly divides and isolates Americans. Consumer culture has provided affluent societies with peaceful alternatives to tribalism and class war, Cross writes, and it has fueled extraordinary economic growth. The challenge for the future is to find ways to revive the still valid portion of the culture of constraint and control the overpowering success of the all-consuming twentieth century.
Download or read book The Great War in the Air written by John H. Morrow and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2009-01-13 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting in 1909 with the beginnings of military aviation and the aviation industry and ending with their catastrophic postwar contraction, the book examines the totality of the air war: its heroism, romantic myths, politics, strategies, and cost in men and materiel. John H. Morrow, Jr., also elaborates on the advancements in aircraft and engine technology and production during airpower's development into a viable and threatening military weapon within a decade of its origins.
Download or read book Outbreak written by Hilary Evans and published by Anomalist Books, LLC. This book was released on 2009 with total page 785 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From fads, crazes, and manias to collective delusions, scares, panics, and mass hysterias, history is replete with examples of remarkable social behavior. Many are fueled by fear and uncertainty; others are driven by hope and expectation. For others still, the causes are more obscure. This massive collection of extraordinary social behaviors spans more than two millennia, and attempts to place many of the episodes within their greater historical and cultural context. Perhaps the most well known example of unusual collective behavior occurred in 1938, when a million or more Americans were frightened or panicked after listening to a realistic radio drama about a Martian invasion of New Jersey, based on an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel "War of the Worlds." Less known but equally remarkable scares based on Wells' book occurred in Chile in 1944 (when Army units were mobilized), in Ecuador in 1949 (when riots broke out, leaving more than a dozen dead), as well as in Buffalo in 1968, Rhode Island in 1974, and Europe in 1988 and 1998. The modern civilized world is by no means immune to such peculiar episodes. In the late 20th century, scores of people in the U.S. and Europe were wrongly incarcerated following claims of Satanic ritual abuse by authorities untutored in False Memory Syndrome. This episode recalls the European witch terror of the late Middle Ages, when innocent people were tortured and executed for consorting with the Devil based on the flimsiest of evidence. OUTBREAK! THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EXTRAORDINARY SOCIAL BEHAVIOR is an authoritative reference on a broad range of topics: collective behavior, deviance, social and perceptual psychology, sociology, history, folklore, religious studies, political science, social anthropology, gender studies, critical thinking, and mental health. Never before have so many sources been brought together on the mesmerizing topic of collective behavior.
Download or read book The Wind and Beyond The ascent of the airplane written by James R. Hansen and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
