Shaping the Royal Navy: technology, authority and naval architecture, c. 1830-1906

摘要

Historians of science and technology have recently been grappling with the thorny issue of expertise, questions around what constitutes an expert, how such a status is acquired and maintained, and, more contemporaneously, whether we now live in a technocratic society of experts. Most historical studies of expert culture are concerned with the twentieth century, and many assume that a person who acquires this status in any given field also gains the authority to exert influence over the trajectory of technological developments. In Shaping the Royal Navy, Leggett shows that such assumptions about the granting of authority are false. While expert status might be held by an individual in complex technological systems, he demonstrates that there are many different types of expertise. Leggett argues that the authority to direct development, with or without the mutual participation of other closely related experts, depends on who holds the highest position of authority regardless of their personal expertise.