David F. Noble

David Franklin Noble ( born July 22, 1945, † 27 December 2010) was an American technology, science and education historian.

Life

David F. Noble worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ) and at the Smithsonian Institution and taught at York University (Canada ).

Most famous was his standard work on the social history of automation. In his book on Luddites he tries to show that the behavior of the Luddites was quite rational, while today's submissive attitude towards the so-called technical progress is deeply irrational.

Writings

• America by Design. Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 1977, ISBN 0195026187th
• Forces of Production. A Social History of Industrial Automation. Oxford University Press, New York, 1984, ISBN 0,394,512,626th
• Luddites or the intricate relationships of people to their machines. From the American Paula Bradish. Interaction, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3924709009th ( The issue also contains an essay on the development of numerically controlled machine tools. )
• With Charles Course: Spreadsheets for Agriculture. Longman Scientific & Technical, 1993, ISBN 0,582,053,897th
• David Noble: A World Without Women. The Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science. New York 1992, ISBN 039455650X.
• Progress Without People. In Defense of Luddism. Kerr, Chicago 1993.
• The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention. Knopf, New York 1997.
• Digital diploma mills. The automation of higher education. Monthly Review Press, New York 2001, ISBN 1-58367-061-0.
• Beyond the Promised Land. The Movement and the Myth. Between the Lines Press, 2005, ISBN 1-897071-01-9.