Overview

In the longstanding historical debate over what exactly was revolutionary about the so-called Second Industrial Revolution in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, historians today are often asked to draw parallels between it and the current “Fourth” Industrial Revolution, characterized by the emergence of massive personal and private use of handheld electronic computers as well as the emerging use of “Big Data,” in the early 21^st century. But few historians have examined the parallels between the emergence of engineering as a profession at the dawn of the age of electricity and of massive chemical and mechanical manufacturing, a time when technology transfers and high-tech immigrants moving between the United States and Europe also reshaped U.S. manufacturing and the work of its labor force in myriad ways.