WONDROUS CONTRIVANCES

A tiresome survey of new technologies.

Ierley, who has written much on the impact of technological innovation (Open House, 1999, etc.), here promises to explore the manner in which such “wondrous” developments as the telephone, the radio, and the computer were received and experienced by those who first encountered them. Don’t expect Foucault. Ierley’s method is simply to explain how a particular technology developed, briefly describe its expansion into popular usage, and then move on to the next invention. When he sticks to the obscure, he’s occasionally entertaining. Some of the facts he digs up about early bicycles and mechanical reproduction are interesting enough to provoke actual thought: How many people know, for instance, that the bicycle was developed only after the railroad had come into common usage, or that the Founding Fathers made regular use of primitive copying machines? But it is simply amazing that Ierley thought it would be compelling to describe word-processing and e-mail to a contemporary audience, especially since his grasp is not particularly sure. His hackneyed accounts of the automobile, airplane, and radio are less tone-deaf but equally devoid of insight; these stories have been told many times before with more thought and greater wit. The ultimate and central flaw here, however, is Ierley’s failure to make any true attempt to fulfill his stated goal of understanding the idea of technology. Instead of insight into the manner in which our predecessors understood and processed technological development, he provides brief references to vintage instruction manuals and the dates of various devices’ first appearances in toy form for children. Such half-hearted attempts at social or cultural history only result in frustration.

Short on innovation.