If it is supposedly a depiction of American progress and American history, what elements are missing from Gast's painting? What gets lost in his linear treatment of American history? Read the article below online. What ideas about technology does the author associate with Gast's painting?

• John Gast's "Liberty Stringing the Telegraph" in the context of the history of American Technology ("Technology, Ideology and Social History")
• See also the Web Research Activity "Electronic Frontiers: The Wild West and Cyberspace"

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