The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in AmericaFor over four decades, Leo Marx's work has focused on the relationship between technology and culture in 19th- and 20th-century America. His research helped to define--and continues to give depth to--the area of American studies concerned with the links between scientific and technological advances, and the way society and culture both determine these links. The Machine in the Garden fully examines the difference between the "pastoral" and "progressive" ideals which characterized early 19th-century American culture, and which ultimately evolved into the basis for much of the environmental and nuclear debates of contemporary society. This new edition is appearing in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Marx's classic text. It features a new afterword by the author on the process of writing this pioneering book, a work that all but founded the discipline now called American Studies. |
From inside the book
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Page 4
... idea of America entered the mind of Europe and come down to the present—to, say, the death of Robert Frost in 1963 ... ideas, and certain products of the collective imagination — we may call them “cultural symbols” — meet. To appreciate ...
... idea of America entered the mind of Europe and come down to the present—to, say, the death of Robert Frost in 1963 ... ideas, and certain products of the collective imagination — we may call them “cultural symbols” — meet. To appreciate ...
Page 6
... ideas once embodied in this cherished image. I am thinking especially of the work of Richard Hofstadter, Marvin Meyers, and Henry Nash Smith. These writers have not been concerned, to be sure, with the relation between this body of ...
... ideas once embodied in this cherished image. I am thinking especially of the work of Richard Hofstadter, Marvin Meyers, and Henry Nash Smith. These writers have not been concerned, to be sure, with the relation between this body of ...
Page 16
... ideas and emotions, the first thing to notice about these casual notes is the decisive part played by the machine image. Taken by itself, what comes before we hear the train whistle scarcely arouses our interest. Descriptions of ...
... ideas and emotions, the first thing to notice about these casual notes is the decisive part played by the machine image. Taken by itself, what comes before we hear the train whistle scarcely arouses our interest. Descriptions of ...
Page 26
... the sentiments of another shepherd. Thus what had been intended as a dramatic encounter with death was replaced by a relatively sentimental and tranquillizing idea, in consonance with the main drift of the age. 26 THE MACHINE IN THE GARDEN.
... the sentiments of another shepherd. Thus what had been intended as a dramatic encounter with death was replaced by a relatively sentimental and tranquillizing idea, in consonance with the main drift of the age. 26 THE MACHINE IN THE GARDEN.
Page 27
... idea of the new machine as a vehicle for an illusory voyage of salvation whose darkest meanings are reserved for readers of Bunyan. Like the hero of The Pilgrim's Progress, the American pilgrim thinks he is on his way to the Heavenly ...
... idea of the new machine as a vehicle for an illusory voyage of salvation whose darkest meanings are reserved for readers of Bunyan. Like the hero of The Pilgrim's Progress, the American pilgrim thinks he is on his way to the Heavenly ...
Contents
3 | |
34 | |
The Garden | 73 |
The Machine | 145 |
Two Kingdoms of Force | 227 |
Epilogue The Garden of Ashes | 354 |
AFTERWORD | 367 |
NOTES | 387 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 407 |
INDEX | 409 |
Other editions - View all
The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America Leo Marx Limited preview - 2000 |
The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America Leo Marx Limited preview - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Adams Ahab Ahab's American Arcadia attitude beauty beginning Beverley Beverley's Caliban called Carlyle century chapter civilization Clemens Coxe culture describes dream eclogue economic Emerson episode Ethan Brand Europe European F. O. Matthiessen fable fact factories farmer feeling forces garden Gatsby Gonzalo green Hawthorne Hawthorne's Henry Nash Smith Huck Huckleberry Finn human idea idyll imagination industrial Ishmael island Jefferson kind land language Leo Marx letter literary literature machine power machinery manufactures Mark Twain meaning mechanical Melville Melville's metaphor middle landscape mind Moby-Dick mode moral myth native nature Nick pastoral ideal Pastoral Poetry poem poet poetry political primitivist progress Prospero raft railroad rhetoric romantic rural says scene seems sense sentimental Shakespeare Sleepy Hollow social society Starbuck steam symbolic Tempest Tench Coxe theme thing Thoreau thought tion tone toral ture Virgin Virginia voyage Walden Walker whale wild wilderness words writers York