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The Technological Imperative in Canada

An Intellectual History

By (author) R. Douglas Francis
Categories: History
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774816502, 340 pages, June 2009
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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Perspectives on Technology

Part 1: Approaching the Imperative

2 T. C. Keefer, T. C. Haliburton, Sandford Fleming, and Alexander Graham Bell: Technology as Railways, Communication Media, and Time

3 Advocates of Technical Education: Technology as Knowledge

Part 2: Grappling with the Imperative

4 George Stanley Brett and the Debate on Technology as War: Technology Dethroned

5 William Lyon Mackenzie King and Frederick Philip Grove: Technology as Industrialism

6 Stephen Leacock and Archibald Lampman: Technology as Mechanization

Part 3: Philosophizing the Imperative

7 Harold A. Innis and Eric Havelock: Technology as Power

8 Marshall McLuhan: Making Sense(s) of Technology

9 Northrop Frye and E. J. Pratt: Technology as Mythology

10 George Grant and Dennis Lee: Technology as Being

Conclusion

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

A pioneering study of Canadian technology and morality theorists that demonstrates how Canadian thinkers were original, intellectually au courant, engaging, and insightful.

Description

From the mid-nineteenth century onward, advocates argued that technology, as a moral force, would strengthen the ties that bound Canada to Britain and Western civilization, while opponents saw technology as a source of American power that threatened Canadian independence. The Technological Imperative in Canada offers new insights into the ideas of influential and lesser-known theorists of technology and morality that will appeal to anyone who wants a Canadian perspective on a critical subject.

Awards

  • Short-listed, Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, Canadian Historical Association 2010