Technikgeschichte: Basistexte , and: Technikgeschichte: Eine Einführung in ihre Konzepte und Forschungsergebnisse (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Technikgeschichte: Basistexte, and: Technikgeschichte: Eine Einführung in ihre Konzepte und Forschungsergebnisse Hans-Liudger Dienel (bio) Technikgeschichte: Basistexte. By Wolfgang König. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2010. Pp. 260. €24. Technikgeschichte: Eine Einführung in ihre Konzepte und Forschungsergebnisse. By Wolfgang König. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2009. Pp. 264. €21. Twenty years ago, Wolfgang König edited the five-volume Propyläen Tech-nikgeschichte. Now he presents an anthology and an introduction into history and historiography of technology. It is traditional German scholarship at its best in its love for compendia, canons, and summaries of the state of the art. The anthology, Basistexte, combines a short introduction by König and thirteen theoretical contributions published between 1898 (Conrad Matschoss) and 2008 (Joachim Radkau). The selection focuses on German scholars, with special emphasis on the 1970s. Six articles were written in this decade: Armin Herrmann on the science-technology relation, Jörn Rüsen on history of technology in the humanities, Reinhard Rürup on history of technology in general history, Karl-Heinz Ludwig on theoretical deficits and future tasks in history of technology, Ulrich Troitzsch and Wolfhard Weber on the science-technology relation and social history of technology, and Günter Ropohl on terms and didactics. König points out that Thomas Hughes’s term of large technological systems was first developed by Ropohl. Therefore, it could be an interesting counterpart in American reading seminars—if it were available in English. Two articles were written before the 1960s; in addition to Matschoss, König selected a more didactic contribution from 1929 from the independent and still not widely known Austrian engineer and historian of technology Hugo T. Horwitz. Three articles are in English: John Staudenmaier on SHOT and T&C, Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker on SCOT, and Thomas Hughes on technological momentum. The remaining more recent ones are by Radkau on history of appropriate technology, and König on consumption history. In fifteen pages, König gives an overview on the intellectual and institutional history of technology, again with special emphasis on Germany and the 1970s. In that decade, most (former) Technische Hochschulen had recently established professorships for the history of technology, a number of theoretical papers and collected volumes on the history of technology had appeared, and general history had recognized for some years the importance of the history of technology. The selected articles reflect this growing awareness for the history of technology in general history and in society at large. [End Page 864] Although König acknowledges that the history of technology experienced theoretical breakthroughs after 1980, the volume does not include many of these discussions, with some exceptions, most notably the social construction of technology (SCOT) controversy. It does not reflect many more recent theoretical concepts and approaches, for example, a gender or environmental perspective, European integration (and institutionally Tensions of Europe), migration and exclusion, or method, e.g., biographical and generational. The other book, volume 7 of the series Fundamentals of Modern Economic History, is also an introduction to our field. It combines an overview on the history of terms and theoretical concepts (chapters 1 and 2) and a tour d’horizon through the history of technology since the Industrial Revolution (chapter 3). One outlook considers the contributions of history of technology for (retrospective) technology assessment and technology policy. The two theoretical chapters argue on a fairly high philosophical level. For beginners, it is not an easy read, but gives a good summary of theoretical discussions of the past. Most of this part could have been written twenty years ago. One could criticize this as conservative, traditional, and bound in long-ago discussions. At the same time, it is a strength of the book that it is less attracted by contemporary discussions than by summarizing past dialogues. In the end, it is a propaedeutical textbook. In the empirical part, König summarizes what he considers the canon in the history of technology, citing more English literature. As was typical in our field for many years, the book focuses on the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany and neglects the rest of the world. The chapter presents results and is less informative about discussions. You often...