Technological Changes In The United States Between 1865-1945

Between the years 1865 to 1945, there were technological changes that occurred within the United States. There was three levels that these changes took place in: technical, organizational, and cultural/social. The question, however, is how did these changes allow the U.S. to mobilize our human and material resources so quickly during World War II? During 1917, while World War I was waging on, President Woodrow Wilson met with his cabinet to “consider the United States entry into the Great War (Coffey, 12)”. President Wilson wanted to follow some of his predecessors’ example and not “get involved in European conflicts (Coffey, 13)”. When President Wilson did eventually ask Congress for a declaration of war, the U.S. Army only had “two hundred thousand men, a twentieth of the German Army, no gas masks, no planes to match Germany’s and only days worth of artillery shells (Coffey, 13)”. When the U.S. ultimately did enter, they came up against something that they were not prepared for: chemical
Those aspects are technical, organizational and cultural/social. Technical represents “knowledge, skill, technique, machines, and making things work (Pacey, 5)”. Organizational deals with “administration and public policy, along with activities of designers, engineers, and technicians (Pacey, 5)”. Finally the cultural aspect deals with “goals, values, ethical codes, and a belief in progress (Pacey, 6)”. The technology that is discussed in this paper all have elements of the three aspects mentioned. To create these technological advancements, it took considerable knowledge and skill, along with various people working together. In regards to organizations, they had to get approval from higher ups to create the technology, and they also had to consider what goals they wanted to achieve with the technology, along with how the public might possibly perceive