 He criticized how the book attributes too much of the conflict to "neighborhood interests" instead of "other factors such as race, class, or patronage", how the book does not have "analysis of the political factions that allegedly divided over public policy options" and how the author labeled too many people as "reformers" without specifying who the "conservatives" are.Jeffrey K. Stine, Congressional Fellow of the American Historical Association, stated the book is "thoroughly researched and well reasoned", and he praised how the book discussed "economic, legal, and political contexts" of technological development, "a task too frequently shunned by historians of technology.