LibGuides: STS 325: Highway to History: Background Info

Print Reference Sources

Reader's Guide to the History of Science by Arne Hessenbruch (Editor)
Call Number: Click title for availability and location information!
ISBN: 9781884964299
Publication Date: 2001
The Reader's Guide to the History of Science looks at the literature of science in nearly 600 entries on individuals (Einstein), institutions and disciplines (Mathematics), general themes (Romantic Science) and central concepts (Paradigm and Fact).

You'll find these print sources in the reference section on the main floor of the library! As you use these and other reference sources, keep these tips in mind:

Use the index to find your topic. Not all scholarly encyclopedias are arranged alphabetically, or your topic might be covered in a larger entry.
Try to find cross references. Look for 'see also' at the beginning or end of a topic.
Look for citations at the end of an entry. Helpful secondary books and articles may be listed, and you may even find citations to primary source material. Build a citation chain using this material.

Science, Technology, and Society: An Encyclopedia by Sal P. Restivo (Editor)
Call Number: Click title for location and availability information!
ISBN: 9780195141931
Publication Date: 2005
Emphasizing an interdisciplinary and international coverage of the functions and effects of science and technology in society and culture, this work contains over 130 A to Z signed articles written by major scholars and experts from academic and scientific institutions and institutes worldwide. Each article is accompanied by a selected bibliography.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life by Joyce E. Salisbury (Editor); Gregory S. Aldrete (Editor); Andrew E. Kersten (Editor); Lawrence Morris (Editor); Peter Seelig (Editor)
Call Number: GT31 .G74 2004 v. 1-6, Print reference (first floor)
ISBN: 9780313325410
Publication Date: 2004
Organized by time frame (each volume covers a finite period) and then by topic (Historical Overview, then Domestic, Economic, Intellectual, Material, Political, Recreational, and Religious Life, followed by primary sources).

Vol. 2: The medieval world
Vol. 3: 15th and 16th centuries
Vol. 4. 17th and 18th centuries

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Start your search for background information with these resources. Gale Virtual Reference Library includes the full text of over 100 subject encyclopedias spanning multiple disciplines. Click here or use the search box below.

Online Reference Resources

Encyclopedia of Science Technology and Ethics by Carl Mitcham
Call Number: Click title for online access!
ISBN: 0028659910
Publication Date: 2005
This encyclopedia considers both the professional ethics of science and technology, and the social, ethical, and political issues raised by science and technology.
American Automobiles of the Brass Era: Essential Specifications of 4,000+ Gasoline Powered Passenger Cars, 1906-1915, with a Statistical and Historical Overview by Robert D. Dluhy
Call Number: Click title for online access!
ISBN: 1299911188
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
From Abbott-Detroit to Zip, this unique reference book documents American gasoline-powered automobiles manufactured for the model years 1906 through 1915, the Brass Era. Here the basic facts of 4,000+ cars, painstakingly researched in all available period sources, are collected and trends of the era are analyzed.
Henry Ford by Vincent Curcio
Call Number: Click title for online access!
ISBN: 9780195316926
Publication Date: 2013-05-16
A compact, lively biography of Henry Ford, the brilliant businessman and icon of American modernity whose towering ego and anti-Semitism complicate his legacy.
Parking Cars in America, 1910-1945 by Kerry Segrave
Call Number: Click title for online access!
ISBN: 9780786491087
Publication Date: 2012
This volume explores one of the more pressing aspects of the automobile problem--storage--from 1910 to the end of World War II, contrasting the reality and perception of parking as found in the pages of the popular newspapers and magazines of that period, covering early bans on street parking, street widening, parking lots, garages, meters, etc.

Film:How Did We Get Here? A History of Evolutionary Science

This WPA-produced clip of an automobile doing tricks from around 1910, 25 seconds long, is available through our Films on Demand Collection.

Films on Demand: Cars

Cars for Fun (2012, 3min)
An electric car (9/15/12, London), a car vs. horse exhibition steeplechase during the Grand National, (3/25/27, Aintree, England), and car acrobats (6/25/31, Blackpool, England) are featured in this video clip. (3 minutes)
Gas Station Attendant Fills Gas Tank ca. 1950
Automobile ownership increased dramatically during the 1950s, due to marketing efforts by automobile companies, burgeoning economic prosperity, and the highway system created by the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. For the most part, American cars were larger than their foreign competitors were - driving a large car was seen as a mark of personal success. 1 minute
Car Design: The Wheels of Change
Infrared headlights, joysticks instead of steering wheels, engine tune-ups via modem: this Science Screen Report showcases the rapidly changing field of car design. Looking at the dominant role of digital technology in automotive engineering and testing, the program demonstrates that computers are becoming more than tools—in some cases, they actually generate ideas and give feedback. Other concepts featured include alternative car power sources, groundbreaking forms of highway monitoring and maintenance, and the intersection of the automotive and aerospace industries. A viewable/printable instructor’s guide is available online. Produced in association with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and the Junior Engineering Technical Society. (16 minutes)

Additional Online Encyclopedias

Another collection of online encyclopedias is our Oxford Reference Collection. Click the link below to search for background information.

Oxford Reference
Provides full text access to hundreds of Oxford reference titles, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks
SAGE Knowledge
Provides full-text access to dozens of Sage reference books, with a strong emphasis on the social sciences.

Books

The Model T by Robert H. Casey
Call Number: Click title for location and availability info!
ISBN: 9780801888502
Publication Date: 2008
Richly illustrated with archival photos from The Henry Ford - many never before published - The Model T is the definitive history of an iconographic piece of American technology
Asphalt and Politics by Thomas L. Karnes
Call Number: Click title for location and availability info!
ISBN: 9780786442829
Publication Date: 2009
From animal paths to superhighways, transportation has been the backbone of American expansion and growth. This examination of the interstate highway system in the United States, and the forces that shaped it, includes the introduction of the automobile, the Good Roads Movement, and the Lincoln Highway Association. It offers an analysis of state and federal road funding, modern road-building options, and the successes and failures of the current highway system.