Abbott Payson Usher

Abbott Payson Usher (1883  – June 18, 1965)^[1] was an American economic historian. The Society of the History of Technology has awarded the The Abbott Payson Usher Prize, named in his honor, annually since 1961.^[2]

In the late 1920s Usher, the American historian Lewis Mumford and the Swiss art historian Sigfried Giedion began to systematically investigate the social consequences of technology.^[3] In A History of Mechanical Inventions he argued that technological innovation was a slow, collective process with many contributors, not relying on the genius of great inventors.^[4]

Publications

• The history of the grain trade in France, 1400-1710. Harvard University Press. 1913. ISBN 0-374-98063-2.  (online text)
• An introduction to the industrial history of England. Houghton Mifflin company. 1920.  (online text)
• A History of Mechanical Invention. McGraw-Hill. 1929.  (Harvard University Press, 1954; Dover Publications, 1988 ISBN 0-486-25593-X)(online text)
• The early history of deposit banking in Mediterranean Europe, (Harvard Economic Studies 75). Harvard University Press. 1943. (online text)

References