ABSTRACT
Technological innovation touched every corner of the postwar world. While most American consumers noticed the coming of television and VCRs, compact discs, jet travel, new synthetic clothing and plastics, and microwave ovens, the technological upsurge after 1945 also transformed the far reaches of farming, mining, and medicine. Although these innovations had roots in the 1920s and 1930s, many were developed during World War II. Depending on costly and complex research, they seldom were the invention of one individual or even of one team. Increasingly, innovation required not only the corporate research lab but government sponsorship and university research. These technologies offered a plethora of new goods and services, but they also transformed the way Americans worked. They accelerated the trend away from farming and mining, even reduced the proportion of Americans employed in industry, and set the stage for the modern service economy.1
