Paul Josephson, Colby's
Russian and Soviet history professor, is a specialist in the history of twentieth
century science and technology. He became interested in this subject through
study of the Soviet philosophy of science, dialectical materialism, and its
impact on the development of relativity theory and quantum mechanics within
Soviet borders. His first book was a cultural and political history of the
Leningrad physics community from 1900 until 1940. Josephson was also intrigued
by the comparison of the fate of scientists under Hitler and Stalin, writing
about this fate in a short textbook, Totalitarian Science and Technology.
Josephson has written
two other books, both of which consider how the utopian dreams of scientists
and political leaders have been misplaced. His New Atlantis Revisited, about
the Khrushchev era Siberian city of science, Akademgorodok, won the Shulman
Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. His
Red Atom covers peaceful nuclear programs in the former Soviet Union. This
book on flying, floating and stationary reactors, food irradiation programs,
and fusion convinced Josephson that there is no such thing as a peaceful nuclear
technology. (Please see "Publications.")
The study of such large
scale technological systems as nuclear reactors and the extensive environmental
costs of their construction and operation led Josephson into environmental
history. With students at Colby he intends to study the notion of scientific
management of fish, forest, and water resources, and the role of what he calls
"brute force technologies" in promoting environmental degradation irrespective
of the country in which they are introduced (Brazil, Norway, Russia, the United
States and so on.) Josephson has become a neo-Luddite who worries about the
way in which modern people embrace SUVs, cell phones, weedwackers, jetskis,
computers and so on, but rarely ponder the ethical, moral, social, or environmental
costs of these extravagances, nor the way in which extravagancies have become
necessities. (Please see "Course Offerings.")
Josephson has stood on
nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union, jumped into icy Arctic water
after a sauna, and eaten slightly radiactive mooseburgers. He has visited
the industrial forest of Maine to examine the technologies of clear-cutting.
He has poured his own concrete, but dreams of visiting the Grand Coulee Dam
to understand what real concrete is.
Personal Information:
Josephson enjoys outdoor
athletics, construction, and travel. He visits East Central Europe, Russia,
and Ukraine frequently for research. He speaks and reads Russian fluently;
reads and speaks German with some ability; and reads, slowly and painfully,
Polish, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. Josephson was the president of the Portsmouth/Severodvinsk
Connection, a sister city organization that successfully opened the closed
city of Severodvinsk to American citizens. Josephson is a Pittsburgh Pirate
fan, a critic of multi-purpose stadiums and astroturf, who dreams of a seven-game
world series between the Pirates and Red Sox. He loves spicy food, but avoids
those high in fat. Paul's wife, Cathy Frierson, is professor of history at
the University of New Hampshire. He has a twelve-year old son, Isaac, who
enjoys sports and reading. Josephson is thrilled to be down east.
Publications (Books):Red
Atom (New York: W.H. Freeman and Co.,1999). New Atlantis Revisited: The Siberian
City of Science (Princeton University Press, 1997). Totalitarian Science and
Technology (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1996).
Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia (Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1991).
Courses
to be Offered:
Russian History,
800-1905
Twentieth
Century Soviet and Russian History
Scientific
Revolutions: The Rise of Modern Science
Luddite
Rantings: A Historical Critique of Big Technology
Changing
Notions of Progress: Technology and the Environment
From
the Periodic Table to Sputnik and Chernobyl
Nuclear
Utopicas and Dystopias
Science,
Race and Gender
Russian
Intellectual History
Josephson
throughly enjoys supervising independent projects and senior theses.
