Version 1
: Received: 14 October 2024 / Approved: 14 October 2024 / Online: 14 October 2024 (10:36:37 CEST)
How to cite:
Gordon, C. E. Putting the Car Before the Horse: The Diffusion of the Automobile and the Rise of Technocratic Primacy. Preprints2024, 2024101038. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1038.v1
Gordon, C. E. Putting the Car Before the Horse: The Diffusion of the Automobile and the Rise of Technocratic Primacy. Preprints 2024, 2024101038. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1038.v1
Gordon, C. E. Putting the Car Before the Horse: The Diffusion of the Automobile and the Rise of Technocratic Primacy. Preprints2024, 2024101038. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1038.v1
APA Style
Gordon, C. E. (2024). Putting the Car Before the Horse: The Diffusion of the Automobile and the Rise of Technocratic Primacy. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1038.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Gordon, C. E. 2024 "Putting the Car Before the Horse: The Diffusion of the Automobile and the Rise of Technocratic Primacy" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1038.v1
Abstract
This paper reviews the social dimensions of the rolling out and utilization of the automobile in the United States over the past one hundred years, starting with the early days steeped largely (but not exclusively) in technological idealism; moving through an age of car-ascendancy with its peak in the 1950s and 1960 (with the birth of a literal “car culture”); and into the present day of automobile dependency in the midst of a profound changes in auto technology that have unclear societal implications. This review generally indicates that the machine, rather than the human operator, was from early on the center of the creation of a car-based system in America which effectively made the human being and society a reactor to technical progress rather than the other way around. The technological and mechanical aspects of automobiles remain impressive. But the history reviewed here shows that while technical advances are good, these should be guided and channeled into the pursuit of and service to more enlightened and humanist applications, and that such guiding did not happen naturally with the automobile.
Keywords
technology; diffusion; automobile; car; transport; technical change; technology and culture
Subject
Social Sciences, Transportation
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
