I am a historian of the United States and Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular interests in the histories of technology and infrastructure, the environment, and the American West. My previous work includes research into peace movements, with a special emphasis on anti-nuclear protests during the Cold War. Address: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften
Geschichte Westeuropas u. d. transatlantischen Beziehungen
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin
This article explores the regulation of water infrastructure in Los Angeles between 1870 and 1920... more This article explores the regulation of water infrastructure in Los Angeles between 1870 and 1920. It seeks to understand how the city government and the municipal water utility tried to govern individual water routines. In addition, it investigates how people used water in their daily lives. Departing from the premise that infrastructure is constantly being made, remade, and unmade in everyday life, this piece argues that urban space and social identities in Los Angeles were forged through people’s interaction with technological artifacts. For example, including or excluding specific groups from the water network was a driving force in the formation of race and citizenship in Los Angeles, while the domestication of water infrastructure catalyzed the learning of a proper use of technological appliances. At the same time, there emerged new forms of consumer activism, aiming to integrate fragmented space in Los Angeles. Consumer activists also articulated new conceptions of domestic comfort. Placing specific emphasis on the material and environmental history of the everyday encounter with water infrastructure, the article reveals that the materiality, spatiality, and ecology of water infrastructure acted as subtle techniques of governing user behavior.
This article examines the appropriation of new water technologies in Los Angeles between 1870 and... more This article examines the appropriation of new water technologies in Los Angeles between 1870 and 1920. In particular, it explores how social reformers aimed to establish sanitary conduct. Adjusting consumers to tap water and toilet facilities instead of public wells and surface sewers was a contingent process. It required both the disciplining of everyday life routines and the habitualization of bodily practices by consumers. In circa 1900 Los Angeles, this process connected to the biopolitical formation of the city population. By excluding Mexican and Chinese Americans from water infrastructure, the white majority produced the “modern city” on the model of the “modern body,” both imagined in racial, classed, and gendered categories.
Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung fordert heraus. Seit der Formierung der Forschungsper... more Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung fordert heraus. Seit der Formierung der Forschungsperspektive im Umfeld des Ost-West-Konflikts streiten sich Historiker:innen darüber, was ihren eigentlichen Gegenstandsbereich ausmachen und mit welchen Ansätzen und Methoden er am besten erforscht werden sollte. Auch die Frage, welche Rolle Studien etwa zu historischen Ansätzen zur Vermeidung von Krieg und Gewalt oder zu vergangenen Gewaltkonflikten in politischen Konstellationen der Gegenwart einnehmen sollten, sorgte immer wieder für Debatten. Dieses Kapitel führt daher in die Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung ein, indem es sie entlang des Bildes von der »Quadratur des Kreises« charakterisiert.
ICON: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology 26, 1, 2021
This article offers a new research agenda for the material history of infrastructure. Building on... more This article offers a new research agenda for the material history of infrastructure. Building on a revised cultural history of technology and new materialism, it suggests that materiality is a powerful analytical lens for researching infrastructure. In doing so, infrastructure is understood in a broad sense to include artefacts like bridges, water mains, and internet cables. The agency of material infrastructure is central to this piece. As the article argues, viewing infrastructure as a "material assemblage" highlights its various relational interactions with humans and non-humans. This adds to ongoing efforts to decentralize human agency. Two sections devoted to these complex and fluid relationships outline possible research approaches. In particular, spill overs from the histories of knowledge and power to the history of material infrastructure provide directions for future research. Taken as a whole, this article proposes that materiality is central to any understanding of infrastructure and concludes with a set of questions for further research.
International Journal of History, Culture and Modernity (HCM), 2018
This special issue explores the materiality of politics in Cold War Europe. Building on a revised... more This special issue explores the materiality of politics in Cold War Europe. Building on a revised political history that includes social movements and marginalized groups from below and examines the symbolism, language and performance of politics, we aim to connect with ongoing efforts to include material culture in the study of political history. The contributions to this issue focus on physical objects, spaces, and bodies. More specifically, they analyze the built environment, consumer goods, and social practices to reveal the intersection of materiality and politics. Conceptually, they demonstrate various ways in which objects became intrinsic to politics and served as a medium for political expression, representation and contestation. Placing particular emphasis on how material culture generated unexpected or unintended dynamics, the contributions also trace objects as source of resilience in the political process. Taken as a whole, this special issue argues that material culture is essential for understanding the political as a fluid and contingent category.
Es gibt derzeit im deutschsprachigen Raum keine Publikation, die Themen, Ansätze und Perspektiven... more Es gibt derzeit im deutschsprachigen Raum keine Publikation, die Themen, Ansätze und Perspektiven der Historischen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung bündelt und epochenübergreifend diskutiert. Wir laden daher mit diesem Call for Papers zur Mitarbeit an einem konzeptionellen Sammelband ein, der die Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung als diskussionsfreudige und kritische Forschungsperspektive vorstellt und inhaltlich und konzeptionell weiterführt.
Das Wechselspiel von Frieden, Konflikten, Gewalt und Krieg prägt unsere Gegenwart ebenso wie die ... more Das Wechselspiel von Frieden, Konflikten, Gewalt und Krieg prägt unsere Gegenwart ebenso wie die Vergangenheit. Dieser Band bietet einen aktuellen Überblick über die programmatischen und methodischen Einsichten der Historischen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung und gibt Impulse zu ihrer konzeptionellen und thematischen Weiterentwicklung. Dabei werben die Beiträge für einen Ansatz, der Gewalt und Krieg nicht als Ausgangspunkt setzt, sondern problematisiert und erklärt. Dies macht Alternativen zu Gewalt und Krieg, Bemühungen zu deren Einhegung und Überwindung und das Streben nach Frieden zu einem wichtigen Fluchtpunkt der Erzählung.
The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight E... more The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight European universities to internationalise and diversify the study of modern European history, exploring a grand sweep of time from 1500 to 2000. Offering a valuable corrective to the Anglocentric narratives of previous English-language textbooks, scholars from all over Europe have pooled their knowledge on comparative themes such as identities, cultural encounters, power and citizenship, and economic development to reflect the complexity and heterogeneous nature of the European experience. Rather than another grand narrative, the international author teams offer a multifaceted and rich perspective on the history of the continent of the past 500 years. Each major theme is dissected through three chronological sub-chapters, revealing how major social, political and historical trends manifested themselves in different European settings during the early modern (1500–1800), modern (1800–1900) and contemporary period (1900–2000).
This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight E... more The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight European universities to internationalise and diversify the study of modern European history, exploring a grand sweep of time from 1500 to 2000. Offering a valuable corrective to the Anglocentric narratives of previous English-language textbooks, scholars from all over Europe have pooled their knowledge on comparative themes such as identities, cultural encounters, power and citizenship, and economic development to reflect the complexity and heterogeneous nature of the European experience. Rather than another grand narrative, the international author teams offer a multifaceted and rich perspective on the history of the continent of the past 500 years. Each major theme is dissected through three chronological sub-chapters, revealing how major social, political and historical trends manifested themselves in different European settings during the early modern (1500–1800), modern (1800–1900) and contemporary period (1900–2000).
This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
This book is one of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership “Teaching European History in the 21st Century”, which ran from 2019-2022 and was funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 (Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices).
This article explores the regulation of water infrastructure in Los Angeles between 1870 and 1920... more This article explores the regulation of water infrastructure in Los Angeles between 1870 and 1920. It seeks to understand how the city government and the municipal water utility tried to govern individual water routines. In addition, it investigates how people used water in their daily lives. Departing from the premise that infrastructure is constantly being made, remade, and unmade in everyday life, this piece argues that urban space and social identities in Los Angeles were forged through people’s interaction with technological artifacts. For example, including or excluding specific groups from the water network was a driving force in the formation of race and citizenship in Los Angeles, while the domestication of water infrastructure catalyzed the learning of a proper use of technological appliances. At the same time, there emerged new forms of consumer activism, aiming to integrate fragmented space in Los Angeles. Consumer activists also articulated new conceptions of domestic comfort. Placing specific emphasis on the material and environmental history of the everyday encounter with water infrastructure, the article reveals that the materiality, spatiality, and ecology of water infrastructure acted as subtle techniques of governing user behavior.
This article examines the appropriation of new water technologies in Los Angeles between 1870 and... more This article examines the appropriation of new water technologies in Los Angeles between 1870 and 1920. In particular, it explores how social reformers aimed to establish sanitary conduct. Adjusting consumers to tap water and toilet facilities instead of public wells and surface sewers was a contingent process. It required both the disciplining of everyday life routines and the habitualization of bodily practices by consumers. In circa 1900 Los Angeles, this process connected to the biopolitical formation of the city population. By excluding Mexican and Chinese Americans from water infrastructure, the white majority produced the “modern city” on the model of the “modern body,” both imagined in racial, classed, and gendered categories.
Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung fordert heraus. Seit der Formierung der Forschungsper... more Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung fordert heraus. Seit der Formierung der Forschungsperspektive im Umfeld des Ost-West-Konflikts streiten sich Historiker:innen darüber, was ihren eigentlichen Gegenstandsbereich ausmachen und mit welchen Ansätzen und Methoden er am besten erforscht werden sollte. Auch die Frage, welche Rolle Studien etwa zu historischen Ansätzen zur Vermeidung von Krieg und Gewalt oder zu vergangenen Gewaltkonflikten in politischen Konstellationen der Gegenwart einnehmen sollten, sorgte immer wieder für Debatten. Dieses Kapitel führt daher in die Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung ein, indem es sie entlang des Bildes von der »Quadratur des Kreises« charakterisiert.
ICON: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology 26, 1, 2021
This article offers a new research agenda for the material history of infrastructure. Building on... more This article offers a new research agenda for the material history of infrastructure. Building on a revised cultural history of technology and new materialism, it suggests that materiality is a powerful analytical lens for researching infrastructure. In doing so, infrastructure is understood in a broad sense to include artefacts like bridges, water mains, and internet cables. The agency of material infrastructure is central to this piece. As the article argues, viewing infrastructure as a "material assemblage" highlights its various relational interactions with humans and non-humans. This adds to ongoing efforts to decentralize human agency. Two sections devoted to these complex and fluid relationships outline possible research approaches. In particular, spill overs from the histories of knowledge and power to the history of material infrastructure provide directions for future research. Taken as a whole, this article proposes that materiality is central to any understanding of infrastructure and concludes with a set of questions for further research.
International Journal of History, Culture and Modernity (HCM), 2018
This special issue explores the materiality of politics in Cold War Europe. Building on a revised... more This special issue explores the materiality of politics in Cold War Europe. Building on a revised political history that includes social movements and marginalized groups from below and examines the symbolism, language and performance of politics, we aim to connect with ongoing efforts to include material culture in the study of political history. The contributions to this issue focus on physical objects, spaces, and bodies. More specifically, they analyze the built environment, consumer goods, and social practices to reveal the intersection of materiality and politics. Conceptually, they demonstrate various ways in which objects became intrinsic to politics and served as a medium for political expression, representation and contestation. Placing particular emphasis on how material culture generated unexpected or unintended dynamics, the contributions also trace objects as source of resilience in the political process. Taken as a whole, this special issue argues that material culture is essential for understanding the political as a fluid and contingent category.
Es gibt derzeit im deutschsprachigen Raum keine Publikation, die Themen, Ansätze und Perspektiven... more Es gibt derzeit im deutschsprachigen Raum keine Publikation, die Themen, Ansätze und Perspektiven der Historischen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung bündelt und epochenübergreifend diskutiert. Wir laden daher mit diesem Call for Papers zur Mitarbeit an einem konzeptionellen Sammelband ein, der die Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung als diskussionsfreudige und kritische Forschungsperspektive vorstellt und inhaltlich und konzeptionell weiterführt.
Das Wechselspiel von Frieden, Konflikten, Gewalt und Krieg prägt unsere Gegenwart ebenso wie die ... more Das Wechselspiel von Frieden, Konflikten, Gewalt und Krieg prägt unsere Gegenwart ebenso wie die Vergangenheit. Dieser Band bietet einen aktuellen Überblick über die programmatischen und methodischen Einsichten der Historischen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung und gibt Impulse zu ihrer konzeptionellen und thematischen Weiterentwicklung. Dabei werben die Beiträge für einen Ansatz, der Gewalt und Krieg nicht als Ausgangspunkt setzt, sondern problematisiert und erklärt. Dies macht Alternativen zu Gewalt und Krieg, Bemühungen zu deren Einhegung und Überwindung und das Streben nach Frieden zu einem wichtigen Fluchtpunkt der Erzählung.
The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight E... more The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight European universities to internationalise and diversify the study of modern European history, exploring a grand sweep of time from 1500 to 2000. Offering a valuable corrective to the Anglocentric narratives of previous English-language textbooks, scholars from all over Europe have pooled their knowledge on comparative themes such as identities, cultural encounters, power and citizenship, and economic development to reflect the complexity and heterogeneous nature of the European experience. Rather than another grand narrative, the international author teams offer a multifaceted and rich perspective on the history of the continent of the past 500 years. Each major theme is dissected through three chronological sub-chapters, revealing how major social, political and historical trends manifested themselves in different European settings during the early modern (1500–1800), modern (1800–1900) and contemporary period (1900–2000).
This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight E... more The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight European universities to internationalise and diversify the study of modern European history, exploring a grand sweep of time from 1500 to 2000. Offering a valuable corrective to the Anglocentric narratives of previous English-language textbooks, scholars from all over Europe have pooled their knowledge on comparative themes such as identities, cultural encounters, power and citizenship, and economic development to reflect the complexity and heterogeneous nature of the European experience. Rather than another grand narrative, the international author teams offer a multifaceted and rich perspective on the history of the continent of the past 500 years. Each major theme is dissected through three chronological sub-chapters, revealing how major social, political and historical trends manifested themselves in different European settings during the early modern (1500–1800), modern (1800–1900) and contemporary period (1900–2000).
This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
This book is one of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership “Teaching European History in the 21st Century”, which ran from 2019-2022 and was funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 (Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices).
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This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
Chapter books by Jan Hansen
This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
This book is one of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership “Teaching European History in the 21st Century”, which ran from 2019-2022 and was funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 (Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices).
This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline.
This book is one of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership “Teaching European History in the 21st Century”, which ran from 2019-2022 and was funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 (Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices).