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Here is a fascinating study of the role of science in shaping
the public imagination. Science once had an unshakeable
faith in its ability to bring the forces of nature -- even human nature -- under
control. In the nineteenth century, devotees of the new science of thermodynamics
believed the laws of energy conservation applied also to the working body and
that therefore the rational deployment of human energies ensured both industrial
progress and social justice. The labor force was "a human motor" --
a machine capable of infinite productivity if only workers' energies could be
subjected to scientific systems of organization. This
wide-ranging book examines how developments in art, science, politics, and psychology
fueled that belief, contributing to the great labor and political struggles of
our time. The Human Motor examines the impact of the "productivist"
ethos on Marxism, Taylorism, Bolshevism, Fascism, and the "automation debates"
of the 1950s and 1960s. The book uncovers startling
connections between discoveries in the natural sciences and revolutionary developments
in the industrial workplace. Obsessed with conquering every conceivable source
of energy, scientists and social reformers tried to apply the principles of energy
conservation to social problems ranging from industrial accidents to proper nutrition
-- and even the development of a fatigue vaccine! Anson
Rabinbach, Associate Professor of History at Cooper Union, is the author of The
Crisis of Austrian Socialism.
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