Recasting the Machine Age

An important book that extends the scholarship of both the history of technology in America as well as its utopian ideals. - H-Net Reviews ""This carefully written, thoroughly documented book combines extensive archival sources with broad coverage of the secondary literature. It goes beyond the specifics of the village industries to provide a window on the social, economic, and political debates of the interwar period as it related to technology, or as Segal refers to it, the 'machine age.' Historians, sociologists, geographers, economists, and political scientists who want an overview of the period from the perspective of technology, which Segal has covered in other fine works on the subject, will gain insight from this book."" - The Historian ""Segal's narrative runs counter to much that is commonly written and said about Henry Ford. If there is a moral to the story, it is that remarkable things can happen in the unlikeliest places. In Recasting the Machine Age, Ford the reformer overshadows Ford the autocrat. It is a compelling thesis backed by compelling evidence."" - Merrit Roe Smith, ISIS ""A thoughtful analysis of decentralization in the machine age... provides a valuable context to explain why auto companies are building their factories in small southern towns and why all types of industries are 'outsourcing' their work all over the globe. Segal shows that Ford was a precursor of this new world."" - Journal of American History