Review

Textbooks, Readers, and References

Teachers are often asked who invented or discovered something. It's a teachable moment many instructors have been unable to exploit. Until now, that is. Lance Day and the late Ian McNeil have given teachers some help. They've edited The Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology that includes entries for about 1,300 people, who they say have made a significant contribution to the advance of technology. The entries are triple-indexed by name, subject, and invention and/or discovery. This makes it easy for the reader, as teacher or student, to get information about the history of a technological creation, regardless how sketchy that information is. Each entry lists a person's name, date of birth or death if available, a line or two about a specific contribution, a concise biographical sketch and some suggestions for additional research. The overall objective of the book, say its editors, is "to bring these characters out of the shadows and into the light of day, so we can see the background that produced them, and their significance in the area of technology concerned." The decision as to who gets exposure and who remains obscure was apparently the toughest task the editors had to undertake. However, they handled the chore deftly. First, they ruled out those individuals who appeared in earlier works. Those who were left were divided into subject areas and distributed to twenty-six authorities considered to be experts in those fields. Those experts sometimes added names to the list or took some out. Readers get, in the 844-page volume, the end of the process.	1
The Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology gives teachers at the secondary and post-secondary level an opportunity to introduce their students to the world of Science and Technology Studies. Using the subject area (there are twenty-seven subjects to choose from), groups of students could be assigned a specific area, such as automotive engineering, for example. They could then use the book to assemble a composite picture of the history of automotive engineering: the first electric car, the first gasoline-powered car, the first time cars were produced in assembly-line fashion, or the first car that was started without an external crank. Each group could then provide for their classmates a thumbnail sketch of the development of a certain technology. Critical thinking skills could be employed along the way, as students reason, and sometimes argue about how one technological development lays the groundwork for the next. An equally important exercise could ask students to assess the social impact of these technologies. Just as the development of one technology sometimes creates a ripple effect that produces other technologies, students could use this book to consider the ripple effect technological development has had on society.	2
DeVry Institute of Technology, Addison, IL   John Morello

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