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American historian of technology
Thomas Parke Hughes (September 13, 1923
[1] – February 3, 2014
[2] ) was an American
historian of technology . He was an emeritus professor of history at the
University of Pennsylvania
[3] and a visiting professor at
MIT and
Stanford .
[4]
He received his Ph.D. from the
University of Virginia in 1953.
Hughes, along with John B. Rae,
Carl W. Condit , and
Melvin Kranzberg , were responsible for the establishment of the
Society for the History of Technology and he was a recipient of its highest honor, the
Leonardo da Vinci Medal in 1985.
[5]
He contributed to the concepts of
technological momentum ,
technological determinism ,
large technical systems ,
social construction of technology , and introduced
systems theory into the history of technology.
His book American Genesis was shortlisted for the
Pulitzer Prize . He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 2003.
[6]
Main works
Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.
ISBN
0-8018-4614-5 .
[7]
Edited with
Wiebe E. Bijker and
Trevor J. Pinch , eds. The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology . Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1987.
Edited with Renate Mayntz. The Development of Large Technical Systems . Frankfurt am Main: Boulder, CO: Campus Verlag; Westview Press, 1988.
American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970 . New York, NY: Viking, 1989. Which was also a
Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Edited with Agatha C. Hughes.
Lewis Mumford : Public Intellectual . New York: 1990.
Rescuing Prometheus . 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.
Human-Built World: How to Think About Technology and Culture . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
ISBN
0-226-35933-6
References
External links
Joel Moses, "
Thomas P. Hughes, 1923–2014 ," National Academies Memorial Tributes: Volume 20 (2016)
University of Pennsylvania Faculty Page
Economic Principals
G. Pascal Zachary, "
Remembering Thomas P. Hughes ," in New Atlantis 42 (Spring 2014): 103–108
Oral history interview with Thomas P. Hughes
Charles Babbage Institute 1980
Arthur Molella, "
Hughes on Technology ," Minerva 43 no. 1 (March 2005): 113-117
W. Bernard Carlson, "
From Order to Messy Complexity: Thoughts on the Intellectual Journey of Thomas Parke Hughes ," Technology and Culture 55 no. 4, October (2014): 945-952. DOI:10.1353/tech.2014.0108
Thomas Parke Hughes papers (Accession 2259), Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE
For a critical application of Thomas Hughes, see: Shamir, Ronen (2013). Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=22869
International National Academics People Other