The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation.

AUTOMATION; ECONOMIC history; HISTORY of technology; COST of living; HISTORY of accounting

However, despite these and other gaps, Frey's book is meticulous in its research and provides an important account of how technology has shaped the world economically, the disruptions it has precipitated, and the material progress it has engendered through the centuries. Through riveting examples across these time frames, Frey argues that whenever technological progress has been "labor-enabling" rather than "labor-replacing", technology has been adopted with little resistance; not so when technological change has meant major workforce disruptions. The resistance to technological change however, has not been limited to workers alone; rulers and political authorities, particularly in the pre-industrial period, often scuttled worker-replacing technologies for fear of social unrest and rebellion (p.55, 57). [Extracted from the article]

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