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    Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
    Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
    Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
    Audiobook9 hours

    Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America

    Written by Giles Slade

    Narrated by Michael Puttonen

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    If you've replaced a computer lately--or a cell phone, a camera, a television--chances are, the old one still worked. And chances are even greater that the latest model won't last as long as the one it replaced. Welcome to the world of planned obsolescence--a business model, a way of life, and a uniquely American invention that this eye-opening book explores from its beginnings to its perilous implications for the very near future.
    Made to Break is a history of twentieth-century technology as seen through the prism of obsolescence. America invented everything that is now disposable, Giles Slade tells us, and he explains how disposability was in fact a necessary condition for America's rejection of tradition and our acceptance of change and impermanence. His book shows us the ideas behind obsolescence at work in such American milestones as the inventions of branding, packaging, and advertising; the contest for market dominance between GM and Ford; the struggle for a national communications network, the development of electronic technologies--and with it the avalanche of electronic consumer waste that will overwhelm America's landfills and poison its water within the coming decade.

    History reserves a privileged place for those societies that built things to last--forever, if possible. What place will it hold for a society addicted to consumption--a whole culture made to break? This book gives us a detailed and harrowing
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPost Hypnotic Press
    Release dateJun 1, 2013
    ISBN9781927401675
    Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
    Author

    Giles Slade

    Giles Slade is an award winning environmentalist concerned about the diminishing quality of life that awaits his children under climate change. His rich and colorful history also includes stints as a college lecturer, a Harlequin adventure novel writer, an illegal alien, a convicted felon and a college professor. He is regularly published in a variety of other print and online journals. He is the author of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America and The Big Disconnect: The Story of Technology and Loneliness.

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    Reviews for Made to Break

    3.5/5

    23 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This book sheds light into the practice of planned obsolescence, one that is as crucial to a consumerist economy as advertisement and private credit, although sadly less known. Unfortunately, the most interesting parts of Slade's story are diluted with bits and pieces of the history of technology that do not bring much to the main subject.
    • 4/5
      Generally I enjoyed the book although I found the subject matter disturbing. I have continued to read about this subject and it just makes me more and more frustrated with our throw-away economy. There are places where consumers can fight the system by buying used or making ones own, but technology is one of thos places where we are at the mercy of manufacturers and the market.