- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Hopkins Fulfillment Service (Mar 24 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801862507
- ISBN-13: 978-0801862502
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #598,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
An original and stimulating study that raises serious questions about relations between warriors and their death-dealing machinery. -- William J. Astore War, Literature and the Arts Well researched and wide in its scope, this work raises issues that transcend the Civil War and resonate in our own time. -- William M. Fowler, Jr. American Historical Review This book offers important new insights into the Monitor as a national icon, the ironclad's association with the modern U.S. Navy, and the evolving role of innovation and heroism in twenty-first-century warfare. -- Benjamin H. Trask Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Mindell's thought-provoking assessments and conclusions contribute to the understanding of how institutions and societies perceive and react to new technologies. Choice Mindell asserts that Monitor's mythical qualities were at least as important as her technological ones... Mindell's scholarly, yet entertaining and very readable book is an excellent and important work that should serve as a model for similar historical studies. -- John Broadwater International Journal of Nautical Archaeology Mindell provides an intriguing and richly textured analysis that makes effective use of contemporary diaries and other reports. These accounts help Mindell convey the flavor of life aboard the Monitor with candor and insight. -- John F. Guilmartin Jr. Journal of Southern History 2003
Product Description
In a familiar story, the USS Monitor battled the CSS Virginia (the armored and refitted USS Merrimack) at Hampton Roads in March of 1862. In War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor, David A. Mindell adds a new perspective to the story as he explores how mariners -- fighting "blindly" below the waterline -- lived and coped with the metal monster they called the "iron coffin." Mindell shows how the iron warship emerged as an idea and became practicable, how building it drew upon and forced changes in contemporary manufacturing technology, and how the vessel captured the nineteenth-century American popular and literary imaginations.
Combining technical, personal, administrative, and literary analysis, Mindell examines the experience of the men aboard the Monitor and their reactions to the thrills and dangers that accompanied the new machine. The invention surrounded men with iron and threatened their heroism, their self-image as warriors, even their lives. Mindell also examines responses to this strange new warship by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, who prophetically saw in the Civil War a portent of the mechanized warfare of the future. The story of the Monitor shows how technology changes not only the tools but also the very experience of combat, generating effects that are still felt today in the era of "smart bombs" and pushbutton wars.
"We find new significance in the otherwise well-known history of the Monitor. It is no longer the story of the heroic inventor and his impenetrable weapon thrusting themselves upon a doubtful and conservative bureaucracy... It is no longer the story of a heroic battle and the machine's epic loss soon after. Rather it is a story of people experiencing new machinery, attempting to make sense of its thrills, constrictions, and politics, and sensing its power and impotence -- both in glory and frustration." -- from War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor
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First Sentence
About an hour's train ride south of London, one can visit today the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the centuries-old home of the Royal Navy, now an impressive museum. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
About an hour's train ride south of London, one can visit today the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the centuries-old home of the Royal Navy, now an impressive museum. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb war history, human history, literary history, April 19 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor (Paperback)
One reviewer called this book, "a gem of a book... promises to be one of those small classics in the history of technology that sets a new standard for how the core questions of the field are framed and addressed." Right on! It's also a small classic in that it brings carefully documented history in the reach of the ordinary literate reader. This book is so well written that it reads like an adventure story rather than a dry history. It also debunks the myths about the Monitor that we learned as children, showing that the designer, the seamen, the politicians all contributed in their own ways to the myths. By referring to the diaries of one of the officers of the ship, the book brings every detail to rich and human life. We share the insights of the famous political and literary figures of the day, from Abraham Lincoln to Nathaniel Hawthorne to Herman Melville. We learn what really happened at Hampton Roads and what it all means for us today. And we learn about how "Smart weapons displace heroism from the field to the laboratory, from warriors to engineers, and from spectacle to secrecy." Everyone interested in the history of technology, the history of war, and the ways writers interpret events of the day will want to read this fine little book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
fun times, Feb 22 2006
By Jessica L. Lawrence - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor (Paperback)
I had to read this for my history of american technology class, and I have to say I did enjoy it. It goes into detail of how it really affected the lives of the people on the boat, especially like the letters sent from a man on the boat to his wife about the everyday life onboard. I specifically like how it points out the permanent change in battle; no longer do you see the men you kill, no more is the honor of hand-to-hand combat. You fight behind plates of steel, and don't look the man you fight with in the eye. It's not about the layout of the USS Monitor, it's about how it was a turning point in war technology. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn a bit about US history, without getting too technical for the common non-history guru person.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book., Aug 23 2007
By Mary Kay Hulse - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor (Paperback)
The book was a bit too dry at times. But the overall story is quite amazing. I read it for class and found myself enjoying the read. So if you are at all interested in this time period, this is a good book!
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