Scientific Americans: Invention, Technology, and National Identity by Susan Branson

Abstract

Reviewed by: Scientific Americans: Invention, Technology, and National Identity by Susan Branson Albert J. Churella (bio) Keywords Science, Technology, Cultural history, Science history, American identity Scientific Americans: Invention, Technology, and National Identity. By Susan Branson. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2021. Pp. 291. Cloth, $39.95.) From the early republic to the eve of the Civil War, the evolution of United States coincided with rapid advancements in science and technology. As Susan Branson observes, public fascination with those developments reflected more than elitist intellectual curiosity or a desire to create labor-saving devices to compensate for a chronic shortage of workers. In her analysis, widespread scientific and technological exuberance enabled Americans to establish a new national identity. In the process, she argues, "Science and technology move from the periphery to the center of American activities when viewed as the foundation for American development" (2). In most respects, moreover, there was a widespread consensus regarding the unalloyed benefits of science and technology, one that transcended the customary divisions of race, class, gender, and political affiliation. As Branson notes, "informal scientific education" (5)—a process that began in the late colonial era—provided a foundation for subsequent developments. Lectures, public exhibitions, and almanacs facilitated the transmission of scientific expertise to ordinary Americans. Just as republican motherhood provided a political role for women, those public events gave women an opportunity to participate in the scientific dialogue. In an impressive nod to inclusivity, people of color were also involved in the discussion—although individuals such as Elizabeth Norris and Benjamin Banneker could hardly be considered representative of their gender and race. Scientific Americans is fundamentally a work of cultural history, one that filters scientific theories and technological innovations through the prism of lithographs, political cartoons, commemorative items, and music. Some [End Page 665] of those cultural artifacts offered celebratory portrayals of the glorious results associated with American ingenuity, while others were satirical devices that lampooned implausible claims of technological prowess. The balloon craze, which began with eager crowds gathered to see demonstrations by aerialists, ended with the weaponization of the technology during the Civil War. New machines, from the fraudulent hoaxes associated with perpetual-motion devices to the transformative steam engines that powered boats and railway locomotives, offered seemingly limitless potential. Municipal waterworks, often designed with a nod to ancient Greece, Rome, or Egypt, addressed urban problems and "caught the imagination of those who believed the United States was another great empire" (117). The transition to the following chapter, on phrenology, is abrupt, but reveals one of the few instances in which Americans appeared to disagree on the use of science. Defenders of slavery indicated that cranial shapes proved that African Americans were incapable of acting responsibly as free men and women, while northern abolitionists insisted that that data indicated that freed individuals were incapable of acting in socially destructive ways. The final chapter describes fairs, exhibitions, and the activities of organizations such as the Academy of American Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Like the first chapter, it attests to the widespread dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge to the public. Branson's arguments are persuasive, but her conclusions should be approached with some caution. There is little doubt that Americans enthusiastically embraced new scientific and technological developments during the first seventy years of the nation's history—but the same claim could be made of any other era. It is certainly plausible that such enthusiasm underpinned efforts to establish a national identity, the conceptual development of American exceptionalism, and a quest for empire. It is nonetheless difficult to substantiate the proposition that cultural manifestations of scientific and technological exuberance—rather than changes in politics, business, religion, foreign policy, and westward expansion—were the key instigator of those transformative developments. In that context, her assertion that "With the aid of steam engines, the United States was quickly becoming the nation its citizens aspired for it to be" (101) slights the myriad factors that contributed to that process. Several errors in the book, while minor, are at odds with the central focus on the importance of technology. On several occasions (170, 174, and 186), Branson refers to the New York Crystal Palace...