A belief in progress is a fundamental ethos in American history and culture. "The Assault on Progress" probes American literary works that challenge the prevailing notion of technology as a manifestation of progress. J. Adam Johns argues that the idea of technology-as-destiny has long been explored--and undercut--in American literary works and that literature remains a crucial site for ongoing debates in this area.

Johns studies the phenomenon by which each generation comes to regard itself as the hinge upon which history turns. He explores several works by historians of technology,...