Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-312) and index.

"Made to Break is a history of twentieth-century technology as seen through the prism of obsolescence. America invented disposability, Giles Slade tells us, and he explains how this concept was in fact a necessary condition for the nation'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 invention of branding, packaging, and advertising; the contest for market dominance between GM and Ford; the struggle for a national communications network; and 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." "This book gives us a detailed and harrowing picture of how, by choosing to support ever-shorter product lives, we may well be shortening the future of our way of life as well."--Jacket.

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