“If the arrangement of society is bad (as ours is), and a small number of people have power over the majority and oppress it, every victory over Nature will inevitably serve only to increase that power and that oppression.”
— Count Leo Tolstoy
Working in teams of two-to-four students, you will explore the impact of the following technological revolutions over the past two centuries, gathering evidence and constructing arguments to affirm or refute Tolstoy’s assertion that technological revolutions are inevitably used by the wealthy and powerful to enhance their leverage over the rest of society:
In this case I am doing Electrification, and I am refuting Tolstoy’s thesis.
On June 25th, each student will submit a personal reflection in which they survey the specific arguments presented by Team X and Team Y followed by your personal assessment of Tolstoy’s claim that technological revolutions tend to increase and entrench social stratification. This paper should be 1000 to 1250 words in length and contain the following elements: 1) An introduction outlining how you thought about your assigned technology before starting SS 104, 2) A brief narrative of your work on the June 13th presentation, critiquing at least three print sources that you discovered in the stacks at Mugar (Boston Uni Libairy) on this technology, and 3) a conclusion in which you explain your own position on Tolstoy’s thesis about technology. In this final section, you should discuss how your position on technological revolutions has been informed not only by your research, but also by your personal experience. All sources should be cited with Chicago Style footnotes and a complete bibliography.
