The History of Technology Working Group meets monthly to discuss a colleague’s works-in-progress or to discuss readings that are of particular interest to participants.
Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.
Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.
Upcoming Meetings
Tuesday, May 27, 2025, 1:00 - 2:30 pm EDT
Philip Scranton, Rutgers University
"The Auto Parts Maze in the US and the USSR, 1946-1980"
This is a chapter of Prof. Scranton's book manuscript Spare Parts: A Global History of a Modern Problem, forthcoming from Johns Hopkins in 2026.
Abstract:
Thousands of academic and trade books have analyzed the automobile industry, supplemented by millions of journal and magazine pages covering day-to-day production and marketing. The literature on vehicle maintenance and repair is far thinner (see Vinsel & Russell, The Innovation Delusion; Borg, Auto Mechanics), while studies of the essential technologies – spare parts – are few indeed. Our fascination with production and consumption has left what links the two – distribution – largely uninvestigated. Whereas auto assembly trended strongly toward corporate consolidation, parts provision resisted the Big Three’s sustained efforts at control, persisted as a source of technical novelty, and remained chaotic and bitterly competitive throughout the postwar decades. Parts profusion accelerated during the 1960s, rising in eight years from 472,000 distinct components for Detroit models to 768,000. The perils of such abundance included long delays in locating the correct spare and the fragmentation of auto servicing into rival clusters of garages, dealerships, mass merchandisers (Sears), specialized chains (Midas), parts wholesalers (NAPA) and retailers (Auto Zone), supplemented by “shade tree mechanics” and DIY economizers. By contrast, the closing section highlights the perils of planning, Soviet-style, which yielded shortages of many components and surpluses of others (especially those that were easy-to-make, whether needed or not). Both “systems” worked, after a fashion, though neither was rational, efficient, or at all systematic.
Past Meetings
Phil Tiemeyer (Kansas State) shared from his book manuscript, Aerial Ambassadors: National Airlines and US Power in the Jet Age, the chapter "The “Love Bird” Takes Flight: Independence, Neo-¬Imperialism, and the Founding of Air Jamaica, 1960-¬1977."
Matt Wisnioski, Virginia Tech, "Big Bird and the Artificial Kidney," presented a chapter from his book in-progress Every American an Innovator
Amy Slaton, Drexel University, presented "Knowable Selves in a Knowable World," a chapter from her book in-progress All Good People: Diversity, Difference and Opportunity in High-Tech America
Steven Harris, University of Mary Washington, "A Soviet Anxiety of Influence: What Harold Bloom Can Tell Us about Aeroflot’s History of Technological Development”
Joshua Grace, University of South Carolina, presented his manuscript “The Momentum of Things Not Built: Technology, Socialism, and Appropriateness in Independent Tanzania.”
Tiago Saraiva of Drexel University introduced his draft book chapter, "Frantz Fanon in LA: Californian Clones and French Settlers in Colonial Algeria."
Ruth Rand of the Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, introduced her paper "Salvaging Space: Refuse, Reuse, and the Pursuit of Orbital Economy, 1968-1986"
Note special day: Lee Vinsel of the Stevens Institute of Technology will introduce his paper, “John Staudenmaier’s Technology’s Storytellers as a Political Theology.”
Neil Maher of Rutgers University-Newark introduced his paper, "Heavenly Bodies: 'Manned Space Flight' and the Women's Movement."
Layne Karafantis of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum introduced a chapter, "The Blue Cube: Cold War Espionage Hidden in Plain Sight."
Heidi Voskuhl of the University of Pennsylvania introduced her article "Engineering Philosophy: Theories of Technology, German Idealism, and Social Order in High-Industrial Germany."
Jennifer Alexander of the University of Minnesota introduced her article, "Technological Critique and the Founding of the Technology and Social Justice Movement: Jacques Ellul at the World Council of Churches, Amsterdam, 1948."
Sarah Robey of Temple University introduced "The Man in the White Lab Coat: Scientists and Scientific Authority, 1950-1956," from her dissertation, The Atomic American: Citizenship in a Nuclear State, 1945-1963.
Michelle Murphy of the University of Toronto introduced selections from her draft of The Economization of Life.
Arwen Mohun of the University of Delaware introduced her paper, "Constructing the History of Risk: STS and Beyond."
Nathan Ensmenger of Indiana University introduced his paper, "Dirty Bits: An Environmental History of Computing."
Teasel Muir-Harmony of the American Institute of Physics introduced her paper, "A Global History of the First Lunar Landing."
Gabrielle Hecht, University of Michigan introduced her paper, "Toxic Tales from the African Anthropocene"
Teasel Muir-Harmony of MIT and PACHS introduced her dissertation chapter, "Sputnik and the Launch of Space Propaganda."
Jennifer Alexander is an Associate Professor of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota, with specialization in technology and religion; industrial culture; and engineering, ethics, and society. Her publications include The Mantra of Efficiency: From Waterwheel to Social Control (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). Her current project is a book manuscript analyzing the international religious critique of technology that developed following WWII. She asks how religious and theological interpretations of technology have changed over time; how, over time, technologies and engineering have extended their reach into the human world over time through a developing technological orthodoxy; and how these changes have affected each other.
Benjamin Gross
Benjamin Gross is Vice President for Research and Scholarship at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri. He is responsible for managing the Library’s scholarly outreach initiatives, including its fellowship program. Before relocating to the Midwest in 2016, he was a research fellow at the Science History Institute and consulting curator of the Sarnoff Collection at the College of New Jersey. His book, The TVs of Tomorrow: How RCA’s Flat-Screen Dreams Led to the First LCDs, was published in 2018 by the University of Chicago Press.
