Millard, Andre (Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Physical Details: 224 pp.
Language: English
The popularity of the 007 franchise depends on a seductive formula of sex, violence, and snobbery. Much of its appeal, too, lies in its gadgets: slick, somewhat improbable technological devices that give everyone’s favorite secret agent the edge over his adversaries. In Equipping James Bond, André Millard chronicles a hundred-year history of espionage technology through the lens of Ian Fleming’s infamous character and his ingenious spyware. Beginning with the creation of MI6, the British secret service, Millard traces the development of espionage technology from the advanced weaponry of the nineteenth century to the evolving threat of computer hacking and surveillance. Arguing that the gadgets in the books and films articulate the leading edge of technological awareness at the time, Millard describes how Bond goes from protecting 1950s England from criminal activity to saving a world threatened by nuclear bombs, poison gas, and attacks from space. As a modern and modernizing hero, Bond has to keep up with the times. His film franchise is committed to equipping both Bond and his adversaries with the latest technological gadgets. Simultaneously, Millard stresses, the villains and threats that Bond faces embody contemporary fears about the downside of technological change. Taking a wide-ranging look at factual (and fictional) technology, Millard views the James Bond universe as evidence for popular perceptions of technological development as both inevitably progressive and apocalyptically threatening.
...MoreReview John Z. Langrish (2019) Review of "Equipping James Bond: Guns, Gadgets, and Technological Enthusiasm". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 730-731).
Similar Citations
Article
Wittkower, D. E.;
Selinger, Evan;
Rush, Lucinda;
(2013)
Public Philosophy of Technology: Motivations, Barriers, and Reforms
(/isis/citation/CBB001201749/)
Book
Gragg, Larry Dale;
(2013)
Bright Light City:Las Vegas in Popular Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001550144/)
Book
Daniel Herbert;
(2014)
Videoland: Movie Culture at the American Video Store
(/isis/citation/CBB003458613/)
Book
Sean Johnston;
(2016)
Holograms: A Cultural History
(/isis/citation/CBB733418924/)
Book
Dubbs, Chris;
Paat-Dahlstrom, Emeline;
(2011)
Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight
(/isis/citation/CBB001212136/)
Book
Riper, A. Bowdoin Van;
(2011)
A biographical encyclopedia of scientists and inventors in American film and TV since 1930
(/isis/citation/CBB001180695/)
Article
Jacobs, Bo;
(2010)
Atomic Kids: Duck and Cover and Atomic Alert Teach American Children How to Survive Atomic Attack
(/isis/citation/CBB001032384/)
Book
Alex Roland;
(2021)
Delta of Power: The Military-Industrial Complex
(/isis/citation/CBB562475074/)
Article
Slayton, Rebecca;
(2011)
From Death Rays to Light Sabers: Making Laser Weapons Surgically Precise
(/isis/citation/CBB001230686/)
Book
Thomas Stubblefield;
(2015)
9/11 and the Visual Culture of Disaster
(/isis/citation/CBB335939933/)
Book
Jenkins, Henry;
(2006)
Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide
(/isis/citation/CBB001180098/)
Book
Tiemeyer, Philip James;
(2013)
Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants
(/isis/citation/CBB001201064/)
Article
Fisher, Tom;
(2013)
A World of Colour and Bright Shining Surfaces: Experiences of Plastics after the Second World War
(/isis/citation/CBB001201127/)
Book
Ann Gray;
Erin Bell;
(2012)
History on Television
(/isis/citation/CBB042137482/)
Article
Lean, Thomas;
(2013)
Mediating the Microcomputer: The Educational Character of the 1980s British Popular Computing Boom
(/isis/citation/CBB001320416/)
Book
Pursell, Carroll W.;
(2007)
Technology in Postwar America: A History
(/isis/citation/CBB000774179/)
Article
Kozlovic, Anton Karl;
(2003)
Technophobic Themes in Pre-1990 Computer Films
(/isis/citation/CBB000640417/)
Article
Takanishi, Atsuo;
(2011)
Humanoid Robots, and the Culture and History of the Japanese People
(/isis/citation/CBB001033808/)
Book
Jelavich, Peter;
(2006)
Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, film, and the death of Weimar culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001181256/)
Thesis
Jarrod Trainque;
(2021)
Where No Genome Has Gone Before: Star Trek and Genetic Medicine at the Advent of Gene Therapy
(/isis/citation/CBB965253304/)
Be the first to comment!