Shifting Gears: Technology, Literature, Culture in Modernist America

Shifting Gears is a richly illustrated exploration of the American era of gear–and–girder technology. From the 1890s to the 1920s machines and structures shaped by this technology emerged in many forms, from automobiles and harvesting machines to bridges and skyscrapers. The most casual onlooker to American life saw examples of the new technology on Main Street, on the local railway platform, and in the pages of popular magazines.

A major consequence of this technology was its effect on the ...