Winner in the 2003 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Competition in the Jackets category.

When Warren Kendall Lewis left Spring Garden Farm in Delaware in 1901 to enter MIT, he had no idea that he was becoming part of a profession that would bring untold good to his country but would also contribute to the death of his family's farm. In this book written a century later, Professor Lewis's granddaughter, a cultural historian who has served in the administration of MIT, uses her grandfatherandrsquo;s and her own experience to make sense of the rapidly changing role of technology in contemporary life.

Rosalind Williams served as Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education at MIT from 1995 through 2000. From this vantage point, she watched a wave of changes, some planned and some unexpected, transform many aspects of social and working lifeandmdash;from how students are taught to how research and accounting are doneandmdash;at this major site of technological innovation. In Retooling, she uses this local knowledge to draw more general insights into contemporary society's obsession with technology.

Today technology-driven change defines human desires, anxieties, memories, imagination, and experiences of time and space in unprecedented ways. But technology, and specifically information technology, does not simply influence culture and society; it is itself inherently cultural and social. If there is to be any reconciliation between technological change and community, Williams argues, it will come from connecting technological and social innovationandmdash;a connection demonstrated in the history that unfolds in this absorbing book.

andquot;Rosalind Williams ... has written a very personal, autobiographical book.andquot;
-- Paul E. Ceruzzi, Isis

andquot;... a fascinating account of the new relationships between technology and culture ... a literary jewel.andquot;
andmdash; Manuel Castells, Project Muse

andquot;We have Williams to thank for a thoughtful, cogent, and historically well-informed analysis of the engineering profession.andquot;
andmdash; Karl Stephan, IEEE

andquot;An epic account of the struggle to humanize engineering educationandquot;
andmdash; Kirkus Reviews

andquot;Easy to read and understand, William's work provides interesting insights on modern culture and our obsession with technology.andquot;
-- John B. Napp, Library Journal

A humanistic account of the changing role of technology in society, by a historian and a former Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education at MIT.

Rosalind Williams is Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society. She is the author of Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological Change (MIT Press, 2002).