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No help wanted
Amy Sue Bix wonders if America has invented us out of jobs
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The first response to Amy Sue Bix's first book was more than she had
expected.
"I brought a dust jacket home to my mother over semester break,"
the Iowa State University associate professor of history said. "She
was so excited to see it. I can't imagine how she'll feel when she sees
the whole book."
Bix is also excited about Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs? America's
Debate over Technological Unemployment, 1929-1981, published by the
Johns Hopkins University Press. The book is the result of her doctoral
dissertation at Johns Hopkins.
Bix's foray into technology and science in America began back in graduate
school when her adviser gave her the best advice she said she could receive.
"He told me to choose a subject that I would be truly interested
in," she said. "So far, I haven't gotten tired of it."
Her dissertation actually began when she was given a copy of the 1929
book, Men and Machines, which explored the relationship between
human beings and technology prior to the Depression. While Americans today
often associate scientific and technological change with national progress
and personal well being, that wasn't always the case.
During the Depression of the 1930s, Bix says there was an enormous amount
of soul searching among American leaders and ordinary people. At the time,
more than a quarter of the population was unemployed.
"There was a growing fear that increasing technology was displacing
human workers," Bix said, "and that prompted widespread discussion
about the meaning of progress."
Jobs that were taken for granted in the '20s started disappearing in the
'30s. With the invention of talking motion pictures, musicians who had
previously performed at theaters across the country were thrown out of
work. Self-serve elevators replaced the elevator operator. Ticket takers
were no longer required at the subway. Automatic turnstiles had replaced
them.
And with increased automation, the phone company - the largest employer
of young women in the nation as switchboard operators - laid off thousands
of workers.
Technology continued "inventing Americans out of jobs" after
the Depression. But since economic times were good in the '40s, '50s and
'60s, there was little national concern.
"In the '50s and '60s, automation was a magical word," Bix said.
"But there remains a persistent worry about technology throughout
the nation.
"We love technology and we don't want to give up our computers or
televisions and cell phones, but at the same time there is a real individual
fear that technology could eliminate our jobs. Technology has its good
sides, but it has a dark side as well."
Around LAS
February 21 to March 5, 2000
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