Chasing automation : the politics of technology and jobs from the roaring twenties to the Great Society /

In this thorough study, Prout (Marquette Univ.) examines the intersection among reform-minded politicians, labor reformers, scientists, technologists, and "job-replacing technology" throughout successive waves of innovation from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Society. This book is a political history tracing an amalgam of reformers who passed new laws bolstering workers' rights, compensating the unemployed with new skills and job exchanges, and aiding depressed communities. Though this formidable liberal-labor coalition had some successes, Prout outlines how the coalition ultimately came up short in reaching the goal of minimizing the jobs-related impact of successive advances in technology. In deconstructing the politics of the "technology versus jobs" debate, Prout distills the work of multiple task forces, committee hearings, and finally the Automation Commission of the mid-1960s, which was tasked with designing creative solutions for structural unemployment and mitigating the impact of technology on unemployment. Prout draws heavily on in-person research, digitized collections at presidential libraries, published congressional hearings, and government publications. Chasing Automation will be compelling to a specialized niche of readers interested in labor history, information technology, and political history and those interested in the early history of the information economy. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. --Angela I. Fritz, independent scholar