| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.4

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Consumers in the Country: Technology and Social Change in Rural America. By Ronald R. Kline. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. xii + 372 pp. Illustrations, chart, appendixes, notes, bibliographical notes, index. $39.95.)

In this fascinating study, Ronald R. Kline, associate professor of the history of technology at Cornell, examines the "reciprocal relations between technology and social change," focusing upon rural Americans' relationship to the telephone, automobile, radio, and electricity (p. 280). Kline surveys developments from 1900 to the 1960s, but from 1930 onward, his story largely revolves around electricity, including three excellent chapters on the New Deal era. Kline has carefully examined an impressive array of sources, including government records, corporate files, oral histories, newspapers, trade journals, and radio broadcasts. He addresses important themes in the fields of rural history and the history of technology. . . .

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