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Worried that your four-month-old iPod is yesterday's news? You should be -- for Apple has certainly designed a more powerful and cheaper Nano than the one in your hand that works perfectly fine. But can you resist buying Apple's new model with upgraded features until after your current product wears out? America, our e-waste problems have only just begun.

A primer for the techno-curious, Giles Slade's Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America outlines the rapid growth of our waste culture beginning with 19th-century paper shirt collars and safety razors. As Americans grew nonchalant about throwing away common items, manufacturers developed advertising practices convincing consumers that larger belongings (like cars), too, had shelf lives, justifying the "throwaway ethic" that pervades modern society. Technology followed suit and advances -- namely integrated circuitry -- allowed for production of smaller and cheaper electronics. The marketplace became flooded with irreparable products like transistor radios and hand-held calculators, marking the beginning of e-waste as we know it.

Published by an academic press, readers may assume a dense read from Made to Break, but Slade keeps the topic of technological obsolescence interesting with engrossing factoids and anecdotes while sounding an alarm for the e-obsessed. Looking back at the intelligence and innovation America invested in the creation of modern technology, one has to ask: How did we let ourselves become so accepting of creating monumental waste? More ominously, Slade points out that America has not yet caught up with the advances cell phone technology has made in Europe and Asia, but as soon as we do we'll find ourselves deeper in e-waste, sending 50,000 tons of toxic cell-trash straight to the landfill every year in favor of new models. Nonetheless, Slade (a Canadian) trusts that most American manufacturers will be compelled to adjust their current practices to better serve the consumer and the environment.