Bazerman has given us a robust, compelling tale of technological innovation not as the creation of a solitary genius but rather as a product of the times, constructed and represented through the dominant culture's language, argument, and media. -- Stephen Doheny-Farina, Professor of Technical Communication, Clarkson University, and author of The Wired Neighborhood Reconceiving Edison in terms of language and communication, Charles Bazerman has writen a seminal work that offers us fascinating ways to think about the process of invention, the reception of new technologies, and biography itself. -- Professor David E. Nye, author of Consuming Power and American Technological Sublime The Language of Edison's Light marks a significant turn in the study of technology, which it views not as material systems alone but as systems of meaning. Instead of assuming that Edison's light bulb succeeded simply because it worked, the book takes a close and original look at the several overlapping contexts or discourses within which electric lighting evolved specific symbolic meanings. Applying rhetorical analysis and symbolic interaction theory to the study of a tightly demarcated period (the four years, 1878-1882, in which Edison's system took hold), the book puts to rest any lingering notions of technological determinism. Historians and general readers alike will be rewarded by careful study of this rigorous and important book. -- Alan Trachtenberg, Neil Grey Jr. Professor of English and American Studies, Yale University
Charles Bazerman is Chair and Professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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