READING
QUESTIONS Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present Thomas J. Misa Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022; 3rd edition |
DISCUSS steam as a "social
force" in Britain's empire. Same question:
what "impact" did steam have on Britain's capacity to
govern India?
Discuss the influence of opium
in China, British India, and the British empire.
Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's
Burden," McClure's Magazine (Feb. 1899): "Take
up the White Man's burden / Send forth the best ye
breed / Go, bind your sons to exile / To serve your
captives' need; / To wait, in heavy harness, / On
fluttered folk and wild / Your new-caught sullen
peoples, / Half devil and half child."
COMPARE "White
Man's Burden" (1899) with "Black
Man's Burden" + "Brown
Man's Burden"
Assess the impact of "empire" on
British and Indian industry; and on
British-American and Indian culture.
EXPLAIN, in detail, how telegraphs in
India as well as to London expressed the
imperatives of empire. Where were the lines
built--when--why?
How were large-scale public works
projects designed to keep India "agricultural rather
than manufacturing"?
How did Indian technical education
before 1900 reflect the goals of British empire
(rather than industrial development)? Where
were the technical schools, what did they
teach?
EXPLAIN how RAILROADS in India embodied
empire. Where were railroads built, when, why?
CONTRAST a "classic" British-Indian
railroad (rail gauge,
locomotive design, bridge design) with one from North America.
DISCUSS the consequences of "railway
imperialism" in Canada and in Mexico. See Misa's Nation
of Steel chap. 1.5.
Railway imperialists did not
get what they wanted in South Africa. What
happened? What were the consequences of railway
conflicts on southern Africa?
BROWSE Misa's "From
Steelton
to Mandalay" -- on American
railroad hardware in imperial India-Burma. Read
ONE of the "essays" CAREFULLY; EXAMINE the pictures.
What attitudes about Western technology, native
society, and imperialism can you find?
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