Senior Research Fellow
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Senior Research Fellow
I am an American historian, born in Boston, specializing in the history of energy, particularly electricity, although some of my work explores other areas as well. I am active in the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), and I have served on the Executive Board there as well as on two of its prize committees. My teaching career since 1981 has been in Denmark, and I helped to host the SHOT annual meeting in Copenhagen a few years ago. I have also been active in several associations of American Studies, notably in the Nordic countries and the European Association of American Studies, and for a decade I served on the Danish-American Fulbright Board and Scholarship Committee.
Ph.D., American Studies, University of Minnesota, 1974.
M.A., American Studies, University of Minnesota, 1971.
B.A., American Studies, Amherst College, 1968.
Visiting Professor, Warwick University, UK, 2005-2006
Welch Visiting Professor, American Studies, Notre Dame, winter, 2003
Carlsberg Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge University, fall 1999
Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, Leeds University, spring 1998
Fellow, Center for Mankind and Nature, Danish Research Council, 1996
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Research Fellow, 1991-1992
American Council of Learned Societies, Research Fellowship, 1986
Visiting Scholar, History of Science, Harvard University, 1981-1982
National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, held at MIT, 1981-1982
Fulbright Lecturer, Oviedo University, Spain, 1977-1978
Knighthood conferred by the Queen of Denmark, 2013
Leonard da Vinci Medal, Society for the History of Technology, 2005
Danmarks Magisterforegning, Research Prize, 2015
Sally Hacker Book Prize, Society for the History of Technology, 2009
Elected By-fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge University, 1999
The Dexter Book Prize, Society for the History of Technology, 1993
Able Wolman Book Award, American Public Works Association, 1991
The Environment Humanities [with Robert Emmett] (MIT Press, 2017).
American Illuminations (MIT Press, 2018).
America’s Assembly Line, 1913-2013 (MIT Press, 2013). Chinese translation in preparation.
When the Lights Went Out: A History of American Blackouts (MIT Press, 2010).
Technology Matters: Questions to Live With (MIT Press, 2006). Paper, 2007. Translated into French and German, 2008.
America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives of New Beginnings (MIT Press, 2003).
Consuming Power: A Cultural History of American Energies (MIT Press, 1998).
Narratives and Spaces: Technology and the Construction of American Culture (Columbia University Press, 1997).
American Technological Sublime (MIT Press, 1994) [reviewed in Nature, 4.13.95].
Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940 (MIT Press, 1990). New York Times Notable Book of 1991.
Image Worlds: Corporate Identities at General Electric (MIT Press, 1985). Japanese edition, Kyushu University Press, 1997.
Aside from books, I have written c. 200 articles, book chapters, and book reviews, and served as a peer reviewer for many journals and university presses. A more detailed CV, including European publications, is available upon request.