A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1780–1930. Vol. 2: Steam Power by Louis C. Hunter

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 691 and early 20th centuries. His reading of the literature also suggests that social inequalities furthered class divisions between middle and working classes, but that evidence of disparities within the middle class undermines this conclusion, since it rests on an assumption of class homogeneity. Conclusions about the effect of industrialization itself on social inequality are ambiguous, because of great variation at different times and in different circumstances during the 19th century, and because of the influence of other factors, like nationality, region, sex, attitudes, and politics. This inconclusiveness regarding the relationship between indus­ trialization and social inequality derives from Kaelble’s focus on gen­ eral trends in, rather than specific causes and consequences of, social inequality. It also explains why technology is so peripheral in a study that might well have given it more prominence. In the chapters on inequalities in the workplace and disparities between classes and within strata, Kaelble does mention that technology increased inequalities between skilled and unskilled workers during early industrialization. But consistent with his objectives, he does not develop this causal relationship with any specificity or depth. Kaelble’s argument that social historians need to compile more data on social inequality in 19th-century Europe is indisputable. His book is rife with meaty dissertation topics for graduate students and valu­ able research projects for teams of scholars. But I am still not per­ suaded that the proposed research on general conditions and broad trends of social inequality should replace the case studies of trades, cities, or regions—as Kaelble implies and occasionally states. For the case studies usually include the complex chain of causation, and hu­ man action and response, that are essential to the establishment of social inequality—factors that Kaelble’s approach risks neglecting. Whitney Walton Dr. Walton is assistant professor of history at Oakland University. She has written articles on social aspects of French industrialization and is working on a book on bourgeois attitudes toward industrialization in France. A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1780—1930. Vol. 2: Steam Power. By Louis C. Hunter. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia for Hagley Museum and Library, 1985. Pp. xxiii + 732; illustrations, tables, notes, appendixes, index. $50.00. In this volume, the late Louis C. Hunter addressed the history of stationary steam power in the United States, a topic as important economically as the steam locomotive but previously dealt with only in Carroll W. Pursell, Jr.’s Early Stationary Steam Engines in America (Washington, D.C., 1969). Compared to waterpower (the subject of Hunter’s first volume of Industrial Power), steam power enabled more 692 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE freedom of location and larger factory size but required a higher level of technology. Transportation developed in synchronization with the new steam-powered factories, and cities grew up around them. Public health benefited from the use of steam engines to pump drinking water. This is the story of a technology received from Britain, modified to suit American needs, and later enriched by an exchange of ideas across the Atlantic. The pioneering Newcomen and Watt engines in the United States were followed by Oliver Evans’s high-pressure en­ gine in the early 19th century. Because of their low first-cost and the high power relative to their size, high-pressure engines were widely used by midcentury. George H. Corliss filled the need for an engine with good fuel economy and self-regulating speed in the face of con­ stantly varying loads. Charles T. Porter showed how to build high­ speed engines, which were commonplace by 1900 both in America and Britain. Compounding further lowered fuel consumption. In addition to engines, Hunter also covers boilers of various kinds, boiler explosions, inspection and insurance, and processes of con­ struction and manufacture. The effect of the engine on society is implied through statistics on numbers of engines and the proportion of the population engaged in manufacturing in 1860, but Hunter does not move very far beyond the engineering world to address larger contexts. The lives of workers are ignored. The strength of the book lies in the sheer volume of data and the numerous obscure sources cited in sixty-four...