Technology and the culture of modernity in Britain and Germany, 1890-1945 /

The core of this book concerns public debates about aviation, transatlantic passenger shipping, and film from the turn of the century until 1945. Rieger (International Univ., Bremen, Germany) seeks to describe how public debate created cultural environments conducive to technical innovations in Britain and Germany. He relies largely on newspaper reports in the two countries. He concludes that public support for innovations wavered between fascination and fear because the citizenry was largely ignorant. The chapters include "Modern Wonders," "Accidents," "Elusive Illusions," "Pilots as Popular Heroes," "Floating Palaces," "Fantasy as Social Practice," and "Technology and the Nation." Representative sentences illustrate the author's style: "The rhetoric of the 'modern wonder' formulated ambivalence in public debate while simultaneously launching a variety of arguments meant to counteract uncertain evaluations of innovation. Thus the trope of the 'modern wonder' allowed contemporary discussions to embrace technological change in the process of registering anxiety, and therefore crucially contributed to a cultural climate conducive to change." This reviewer too is ambivalent. ^BSumming Up: Optional. Faculty. A. M. Strauss Vanderbilt University