Readings

Required Readings

Buy at MIT Press [Becoming MIT] Buy at Amazon Kaiser, David. Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision. The MIT Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780262113236.

WEEK # TOPIC READINGS
1 Introduction, Course Overview, What is Technology? Marx, Leo. "Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept." Technology and Culture 51, no. 3 (2010).
2 America in 1850: The Age of Transformation

Buy at Amazon Maier, Pauline, et al. "A House Dividing: 1851–1860." In Inventing America: A History of the United States. W. W. Norton & Company, 2006, pp. 422–49. ISBN: 9780393168167.

Selections from Buy at Amazon Miller, Douglas. In The Birth of Modern America 1820–1850. Macmillian Pub Co, 1970. ISBN: 9780672635090.

- Everything's Changed, pp. 19–41.

- The Industrial Road to the 'Celestial City, pp. 67–90.

Optional Reading: Buy at Amazon Howe, Daniel. "The Revolutions of 1848" and "Finale: A Vision of the Future." In What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815–1848. Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 792–855. ISBN: 9780195078947.

72 pages
3 William Barton Rogers & The Foundational Years, 1861–1896

[Becoming MIT] pp. 20–47. Smith, Merritt Roe. "'Godspeed the Institute': The Foundational years, 1861–1894."

Senate and House of Representatives of Massachusetts. 1861. "Acts and Resolves of the General Court Relating to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." Acts of 1861, Chapter 183. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Walker, Francis Amasa. "Massachusetts Institute of Technology Annual Report." Cambridge: University Press, 1894.

Eliot, Charles. "The New Education." The Atlantic Monthly 23, no. 136 (1869): 203–20.

Optional Reading: Rogers, William Barton, et al. "Scope and Plan of the School of Industrial Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." 1984. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Angulo, A. J. "Instituting a New Education." In William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 86–100. ISBN: 9780801890338.

Buy at Amazon ———. "Convergence of Interests." In William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 101–23. ISBN: 9780801890338.

Buy at Amazon Noble, David. "The Wedding of Science to the Useful Arts - II: The Development of Technical Education." In America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 1979, pp. 20–53. ISBN: 9780195026184. [Preview with Google Books]

132 pages
4 Harvard, MIT, and Building a New Campus

Buy at MIT Press Buy at Amazon Prescott, Samuel. Selections from When MIT Was 'Boston Tech': 1861–1916. The MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780262661393.

- "Richard Cockburn Maclaurin—Sixth President."

- "The New Technology."

- "The Last Years in Boston."

[Becoming MIT], pp. 51–77. Sinclair, Bruce. "Mergers and Acquisitions."

Buy at Amazon Jarzombek, Mark. Designing MIT: Bosworth's New Tech. Northeastern, 2004, pp. 56–7, 65–91, and 94–5. ISBN: 9781555536190. [Preview with Google Books]

Optional Reading: Buy at Amazon Pearson, Henry. Selections from Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1909–1920. The Macmillan Company, 1937.

- "A Site for Technology." pp. 97–117.

- "Concerning 'Mr. Smith.'" pp. 118–32.

- "The New Buildings." pp. 133–80.

120 pages
5 MIT and the Corporate World in the Age of Big Business, 1890-1930

Buy at Amazon Noble, David. Selections from America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780195026184.

- "Science for Industry: The Organization of Industrial and University Research." pp. 110–18, and 136–47.

- "Technology as People: The Industrial Process of Higher Education." pp. 167–70.

- "A Technology of Social Production: Modern Management and the Expansion of Engineering." pp. 257–68.

Owens, Larry. "Engineering and the Perfect Cup of Coffee: Samuel Prescott and the Sanitary Vision at MIT." Technology and Culture 45, no. 4 (2004): 795–807.

Buy at Amazon Hughes, Thomas. "The System Must Be First." In American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870–1970. University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp. 184–248. ISBN: 9780226359274. [Preview with Google Books]

[Becoming MIT] pp. 75–102. Lécuyer, Christophe. 2010. "Patrons and a Plan."

Bassett, Ross. "MIT Trained Swadeshis: MIT and Indian Nationalism, 1880–1947." Osiris 24 (2009): 212–30.

163 pages
6 World War I, the 1920s, and the 1930s

Buy at Amazon Hughes, Thomas. "Brain Mill for the Military." In American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870–1970. University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp. 96–137. ISBN: 9780226359274. [Preview with Google Books]

Servos, John. "The Industrial Relations of Science: Chemical Engineering at MIT, 1900–1939." Isis 71, no. 4 (1980): 531–49.

Lécuyer, Christophe. "The Making of a Science Based Technological University: Karl Compton, James Killian, and the Reform of MIT, 1930–1957." Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 23 (1992): 153–80.

121 pages
7 Symposium: Leaders in Science and Engineering: The Women of MIT [Becoming MIT] pp. 216–50. Bailyn, Lotte. "Putting Gender on the Table."
8 Class Meets at MIT Museum

MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections. "The Mid-Century Convocation at MIT March 31, April 1–2, 1949." August, 1999.

6 pages.
9 Symposium: Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything (Kresge Auditorium)  
10 World War II and the Aftermath

[Becoming MIT] pp. 103–36. Douglas, Deborah. 2010. "MIT and War."

Buy at Amazon Dupree, A. Hunter. "The Great Instauration of 1940." In The Twentieth Century Sciences: Studies in the Biography of Ideas. Edited by Gerald Holton. W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, pp. 443–67. ISBN: 9780393063844.

Bush, Vannevar. "Science, The Endless Frontier." Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945.

Buy at MIT Press Buy at Amazon Wiener, Norbert. "Introduction." In Cybernetics Or Control And Communication In The Animal And The Machine. MIT Press, 1965, pp. 1–29. ISBN: 9780262730099. [Preview with Google Books]

100 pages
11 Sputnik and the Cold War

Buy at Amazon Hughes, Thomas. Selections from Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World. Vintage, 2000. ISBN: 9780679739388.

- MIT as System Builder: SAGE, pp. 15–67.

- Spread of the Systems Approach, pp. 141–95.

Buy at Amazon Noble, David. "Command Performance." In Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Edited by Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey. Houghton Mifflin, 1997, pp. 462–70. ISBN: 9780669354720. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at MIT Press Buy at Amazon Killian, James. Selections from Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower: A Memoir of the First Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. MIT Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780262110662.

- "Sputnik and its Shockwaves."

- "To Reassure the Nation."

Buy at Amazon Leslie, Stuart. "A University Polarized Around the Military." In The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 14–43. ISBN: 9780231079594. [Preview with Google Books]

182 pages
12 Aerospace and Computing in the 1960s, Lab Life in the 1970s, The Past Three Decades

Buy at Amazon Leslie, Stuart. "The Days of Reckoning: March 4 and April 3." In The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 233–56. ISBN: 9780231079594. [Preview with Google Books]

[Becoming MIT] pp. 185–212. Durant, John. 2010. "'Refrain from Using the Alphabet': How Community Outreach Catalyzed the Life Sciences at MIT." 2010.

Roberts, Edward, and Charles Eesley. "Entrepreneurial Impact: the Role of MIT." Report sponsored by the Kaufman Foundation of Entrepreneurship, 2009, pp. 4–27.

73 pages