The first major collection of its kind in thirty years, Made Modern explores the role of science and technology in shaping Canadians’ experience of themselves and their place in the modern world.
Description
Science and technology have shaped not only economic empires and industrial landscapes, but also the identities, anxieties, and understandings of people living in modern times. Made Modern draws together leading scholars from a wide range of fields who write on topics ranging from exploration and infrastructure to the occult sciences and communications. The contributors use histories of science and technology to enrich our understanding of Canadian history and of Canada’s place in a transnational modern world. The first major collection of its kind in thirty years, this book explores the place of science and technology in shaping Canadians’ experience of themselves and their place in the modern world.
Reviews
The editors of this splendid collection argue, in a sly nod to Bruno Latour, that ‘We’ve always been modern,’ or at least liked to describe ourselves as such… Bocking’s dense and accomplished piece on "landscapes of science" is alone worth the price of admission.
- Elsbeth Heaman, associate professor, McGill University
These are excellent case studies of historical realities that may in some sense be very Canadian, insofar as they touched upon sensitive geopolitical and power relations… They enrich our knowledge about the social function of field science, expertise, science-policy relations, and about Canadian history in ways that would have made Jarrell proud.
- Sverker Sörlin, professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
The coherence of such awide-ranging collection is achieved because ‘modernity’ within Canada – as expressed alongside the formation and definition of the idea of ‘Canadian,’ the legacies of imperialism within rational, Liberal, individualist Western nationhood, and of imperial/territorial conflict – remains central throughout.
- Karen Sayer, Professor and Director of History, Leeds University