ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Making Technology an Intellectual Matter: History of Technology in France and its International Connections, 1900–1945

• In Event: What Is the History of Science? Part 1

English Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the institutions and individuals responsible for the institutionalization of the history of technology in France until the end of World War II. It begins with an analysis of the institutionalization of the history of science, from which many of the initial efforts toward a history of technology stemmed. The paper will demonstrate that two opportunities to establish technology as a historiographical subject in France were missed in 1894 and 1904 because French humanities scholars were not prepared to consider technology an intellectual matter. It will then show how the first successful attempts to establish a robust history of technology program in France occurred with the help of Aldo Mieli and Charles Singer. However, the rise of the Nazi regime interrupted this progress. Using the archives of French and European institutions, the presentation will reveal the diverse ways in which the history of technology was established in Europe prior to the publication of the first general histories of technology in England, Germany, and France.

Author

• Marcos Camolezi