Fall 2008 - The Johns Hopkins University Press

New in PaperbackHigh-Speed DreamsNASA and the Technopolitics of Supersonic Transportation,1945–1999Erik M. ConwayErik M. Conway constructsan insightful history that focusesprimarily on the politicaland commercial factorsresponsible for the rise andfall of American supersonictransport research programs.Conway charts commercialsupersonic research effortsthrough the changing relationshipsbetween internationaland domestic politicians,government contractors, privateinvestors, and environmentalists.He documentspost–World War II efforts at the National AdvisoryCommittee for Aeronautics, NASA, and the DefenseDepartment to generate supersonic flight technologies;European and American attempts to commercialize thesetechnologies during the 1950s and 1960s; environmentalcampaigns against SST technology in the 1970s; and subsequentattempts to revitalize supersonic technology at theend of the century.“A concise and thoroughly fascinating history of the train wreck thatwas the U.S. supersonic civil transport programs.”—Air and Space Magazine“Conway seems to have struck the right balance between the nuts-andboltsof aircraft design and discussion of larger issues.”—Technology and Culture“Comprehensive and enjoyable . . . A cautionary tale of half-bakedfederal technology and economic policies high-jacking public fundsfor a concept aircraft that was an engineering boondoggle, a financialblack hole, and an environmental fiend.”—History and TechnologyErik M. ConwaY serves as historian, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,Pasadena, California.New Series in NASA HistorySteven J. Dick, Series EditorStructuring the InformationAgeLife Insurance and Technology in the Twentieth CenturyJoAnne YatesStructuring the InformationAge provides insight into theevolution of informationprocessing in the commercialsector and the influenceof corporate users in shapingthe history of moderntechnology. JoAnne Yatesexamines how life insurancefirms—where good recordkeeping and repeated use ofmassive amounts of data werecrucial—adopted and shapedinformation processing technologythrough most of thetwentieth century.“Brilliant volume . . . Yates’s study of the adaptation of informationprocessingresources in insurance has greatly widened the horizonsof our understanding of the dynamics of technological developmentin a business setting.”—Business History Review“A welcome addition to a growing body of literature on the historyof the use of computers by businesses and a good model for otherscholars to use.”—American Historical Review“This valuable addition to the historiography of the computer looks atnew technologies from a user’s viewpoint. Here the user is the lifeinsurance business, which is an appropriate choice because it hasalways been an information-intense business.”—IEEE History Center NewsletterJoAnne YaTES, Deputy Dean and Distinguished Professorof Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management,is the author of Control through Communication: The Riseof System in American Management, also published by JohnsHopkins.Studies in Industry and SocietyPhilip B. Scranton, Series EditorOctober 392 pages 6 x 9 12 halftones, 10 line drawings978-0-8018-9081-9 0-8018-9081-0 $30.00(s) / £16.00 pbHistory of TechnologyNovember 368 pages 6 x 9 28 halftones, 14 line drawings978-0-8018-9086-4 0-8018-9086-1 $25.00(s) / £14.00 pbHistory of TechnologyHardcover edition published in 2005, 978-0-8018-8067-4, 0-8018-8067-X Hardcover edition published in 2005, 978-0-8018-8086-5, 0-8018-8086-6THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS 1-800-537-5487 65