As Americans saw their society changing all around them, writers of the times had plenty to say about the technological boom and its implications for the nation. How had it already changed American society? How did the people react to it? What predictions can be made concerning America's future technological growth? Mark Twain was as vocal as any regarding the society he was a part of, and he veiled many of his comments within the texts of books like Connecticut Yankee. Several differing opinions regarding American industrialism are reviewed below, Twain's among them.An article entitled "The Future of Invention," by Sylvester Baxter, appeared in the April 1891 issue of Cosmopolitan. It praises humanity's ingenuity and capacity for invention, as well as does "Inventions of Half a Century," from Manufacturer and Builder, March 1884. The capacity for human growth and creativity was epitomized in the lightning-fast technology, inventions that seemed to grow and change more with every day. To many, this boom proved that humanity was capable of progressing as a species (though it was likely that, to many of the Americans who took advantage of those innovations the most, that "species" included only whites). And what bounds could humanity reach? No one could tell -- there seemed to be no limit to what new marvels science could create. The new inventions also made life easier for the general public, as reflected in Manufacturer and Builder, April 1886, "The Effects of Labor-Saving Machinery."
Yet not everyone perceived the Industrial Revolution as a reflection of humanity's progress. Technology, some writers saw, had its downfalls. Nor were the inventions permanent improvements. Manufacturer and Builder, May 1883, in the article "The Fate of Dazzling Inventions," examines how inventions that once captured the American public's attention as marvelous new wonders have now quickly lost their appeal and have faded into irrelevance. George Frederic Parsons takes this cynicism even further in his article, "The Growth of Materialism," published in the Atlantic Monthly, August 1887. He believes that, as a result of the growing popularity of labor-saving technology and the ease with which fortunes are made and lost during the Industrial Revolution, America has deteriorated into a country bankrupt of moral fortitude and the will to work, and his predictions for the future are grim.
In a more moderate stance, W. H. Babcock, in his August 1879 Atlantic Monthly article, also titled "The Future of Invention," examines the positive and negative implications of the new devices pervading American society. He concludes that the inventions promoting the aims of big business are detrimental to individual Americans, from whom he feels the strength of the nation comes, while inventions for home use have had a positive impact on the average American's life. He advocates a new kind of society, based on machinery in the individual home and family, but isolated from the control of large industries.
Mark Twain himself speaks as a voice of the times. His own fascination with invention led him to invest in the Paige Typesetting Machine in 1880. A few years after the publication of Connecticut Yankee, that investment chiefly contributed to his bankruptcy (Mark Twain in His Times Website). Clearly Twain could see the promise and the precariousness of popular new inventions. Connecticut Yankee addresses both sides of the technology issue, and it is difficult to say which side Twain perceives as winning out in the end.
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