‘Elvis’s Army’: Training for a War That Never Came
A masterful look at the US Army between Korea and Vietnam: stumbling into an uncertain future, amid racial integration, endless paperwork, and nuclear-armed jeeps.
A. Bowdoin Van Riper
I'm a historian who writes about modern science and technology: how they got to be the way they are, how they shaped (and were shaped by) the way people live their lives, and (especially) the stories we tell ourselves in order to try and make sense of them. I'm also interested in the stories we tell ourselves about the past, and the ways we try to capture it -- and make sense of it -- in movies and monuments, songs and schoolbooks. Along the way, I've written about rockets & missiles, atomic bombs, fossil mammoths, sailing ships, stone tools, zombie outlaws, time-traveling heroes, alien sex, Walt Disney's vision of the future, the significance of Amelia Earhart's leather jacket, and why (in cartoons) gravity only affects you when you think about it. For those who are curious about such things, I was born and raised in Massachusetts, attended public schools, and got my undergraduate degree (dual major in geology and history) from Brown University. I got my MA and PhD in the history of science and technology from the University of Wisconsin -- Madison, and went on to teach at Northwestern University, Franklin & Marshall College, Atlanta College of Art, Kennesaw State University, and (for twelve years) Southern Polytechnic State University. Along the way I've written ten books and a couple of dozen shorter pieces (so far), given more talks than I can remember, taught Boy Scout merit badge classes, been a script consultant for several TV documentaries, and advised the National Park Service on preserving the history of aviation. When I'm not working? Books, movies, beaches, boats, old buildings, quirky museums, junk shops . . . and the never-ending search for truly excellent pie.
The “Good Old Days” of TV Are Happening Right Now
Why American television is better now than it's ever been -- and the unexpected paths by which it got there.
Every F***ing Thing You Need to Know About Profanity
Why "jeepers creepers" should be more profane than any word you (still) can't say on television, why it isn't, and why that matters.
‘Track Changes’: History Written on Glass
A dense, scholarly history of machine-made literary magic: effortless revisions, swappable files, perfect printouts, and what authors did with them.
Barbara Freese Reminds Us: Power Over Nature Is Bought at a Great Price
This new edition of Coal is a compulsively readable history of how coal made the modern world, and of modern attempts to to make a world without coal.
Next Stop Mars? … Maybe
This breathless celebration of space travel in the post-shuttle era is long on beautiful pictures, but short on hard truths.
New Dinosaurs, Old Plot
Jurrasic World is big, loud movie with a smaller, quieter movie inside of it, peeking out at unexpected moments.
‘Tomorrowland’ Captures Sci-fi’s Shiny Surfaces but Misses Its Geeky Heart
Brad Bird’s message, with which he clubs the audience about the head and shoulders, is that we could have had jet packs, space travel, and all of that by now -- if only we hadn’t stopped believing.
The Complex Man Behind “Uncle Walt”
The rise (and rise) of Walt Disney, from starving artist to visionary filmmaker to union-busting studio boss to family-entertainment tycoon.
History Works Against Andrew Keen’s Latest Diatribe Against the Internet
The internet economy has changed the world, and Andrew Keen (still) isn't happy about it.
Who Made the Machines That Remade the World?
Walter Isaacson's The Innovators explores the history of the digital age as told through the intertwined lives of the men and women who created it.
On Chasing an Enemy That’s Too Small to See
Confronting Contagion tries to capture the 3,000-year history behind a modern scientific breakthrough: the discovery that tiny organisms invade our bodies and make us sick.