Recollecting La Technique : industrial heritage sites and the rhetoric of technology

Abstract

Industrial heritage sites are locations that exemplify both public memory and the rhetoric of technology. In this dissertation, I interpret three examples of industrial heritage sites to identify and characterize their common rhetorical features. Using Lowell National Historical Park, I identify how industrial heritage sites root their rhetoric in the technological sublime. Using the National Museum of Industrial History, I describe how industrial heritage sites invite their guests to orient toward workers’ experiences using textual, visual, and experiential displays. Finally, using Thomas Edison National Historical Park, I identify how industrial heritage sites situate sublime technology and guests-as-workers within a technocratic, national scene. With these three features considered, I then argue that industrial heritage sites, and thus the rhetoric of technology they invoke, can be understood as manifestations of what Jacques Ellul terms la technique. I conclude by suggesting an alternative way to recollect the technological past that draws upon virtue ethics.