Innovation - the imaginative attempt to introduce something new or to solve some problem - smashes routine and demands choice, even if only the choice to retain the status quo. This collection of fourteen essays provides a spectrum of historical perspectives on how, when, or why, individuals, societies, governments, and industries have made choices regarding the use of technologies.

Through historical accounts that span centuries and national boundaries, exploring the complexity of a nuclear power plant and the apparent simplicity of an electrical plug, the contributors to this volume dramatically illustrate the push and pull between technology and society. General topics addressed include:

• Regulation of private industry
• Social acceptance of commercial innovation
• Negative perceptions of the "Technological Age"
• Cultural and artistic features of technology

Provocative and accessible, this collection will serve both students and faculty in history, sociology, and public policy, as well as in history and philosophy of science and technology. 

These essays were originally published in the journal Technology and Culture

• Technology and Choice A Technology and Culture Reader 
• INTRODUCTION 
• Contemplating Choice: Historical Perspectives on Innovation and Application of Technology
• Lafollette, Marcel C.
• Stine, Jeffrey K.
• PART I 
• The Movement for Smoke Abatement in 19th-century Britain
• Flick, Carlos
• Bursting Boilers and the Federal Power
• Burke, John G.
• Waves of Change: Mechanization in the Pacific Coast Canned-Salmon Industry, 1864–1914
• O'Bannon, Patrick W.
• “Touch Someone”: The Telephone Industry Discovers Sociability
• Fischer, Claude S.
• More “Small Things Forgotten”: Domestic Electrical Plugs and Receptacles, 1881–1931
• Schroeder, Fred E. H.
• The Garbage Disposer, the Public Health, and the Good Life
• Hoy, Suellen
• Government and Technology in the Great Depression
• Pursell, Carroll W.
• “Very Risky Business”: A Power Reactor for New York City
• Mazuzan, George T.
• Nuclear Power and the Environment: The Atomic Energy Commission and Thermal Pollution, 1965–1971
• Walker, J. Samuel
• 2001 to 1994: Political Environment and the Design of NASA's Space Station System
• Fries, Sylvia D.
• PART II 
• Household Technology and the Social Construction of Housework
• Bose, Christine E.
• Bereano, Philip L.
• Malloy, Mary
• From Virginia Dare to Virginia Slims: Women and Technology in American Life
• Cowan, Ruth Schwartz
• The Cathedral and the Bridge: Structure and Symbol
• Blllington, David P.
• Mark, Robert
• Elegant Inventions: The Artistic Component of Technology
• Ferguson, Eugene S.
• INDEX