Taylor, Frederick W., The Principles of Scientific Management

Taylor, Frederick W. The Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper, 1911. New York: Norton, 1967.

To its enemies, "scientific management" meant reducing workers to automata doing their jobs in the manner their bosses' hired experts ruled most efficient. In mechanized industries, this meant fitting workers ever more perfectly to the rhythm of the machines. For further readings on FWT and Taylorism, see C. H. Rhodes, "Frederick Winslow Taylor's System of Scientific Management in Zamiatin's We," cited under Literary Criticism; see also under Literary Criticism,[1] "Man as Robot: The Taylor System in We," the CW essay by G. Beauchamp.[2]

Note also Patrick A. McCarthy's “Zamyatin and the Nightmare of Technology” (1984), which John J. Pierce says stresses the "critique of Taylorization in We as opposed to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s philosophical concerns": in Arthur B. Evans, editor, Vintage Visions: Essays on Early Science Fiction (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2014), p. 52 of Pierce discussion in SFRA Review #313 (Summer 2015).[3]

Note also "Fordism": the assembly-line principles of Henry Ford.[4] Yevgeny Zamyatin used Taylor in We (1920-21); Aldous Huxley more casually uses Fordism in his Brave New World (1932): the points are somewhat similar.

RDE, Title, 28Aug19; McCarthy/Pierce 8Aug21