Directory

Paul R. Josephson
Professor and Chair

Department Links:       History- Department ChairInternational Studies
Affiliated Department(s):   Science, Technology, and Society , Environmental Studies



Phone: 207-859-5326
Fax: 859-5340 (History )
Fax 2: 859-5229 (International Studies )
Email:
prjoseph@colby.edu

Mailing Address:
5326 Mayflower Hill
Waterville, Maine 04901-8853

Semester Schedule

Education

B.A.HistoryAntioch College1975
A.M.Soviet StudiesHarvard University1978
Ph.D.Political ScienceMIT1987

Areas of Expertise:
  • Russian and Soviet history
  • History of modern science and technology, especially space, nuclear and genome policies
  • Environmental history
Professional Information

Paul Josephson, currently chair of the History Department, has also chaired the International Studies and STS Programs. He is a specialist in the history of big science and technology in the 20th century. His early work concerned the history of Soviet physics He has turned more recently to the history of technology and environmental history in a comparative approach focusing on Russia, Ukraine, the U. S., Northern Europe, and Brazil. His most recent book is a history of recreational machines in postwar North America. Paul has two books in moving toward publication. One is a biography of Zhores Alferov, Russian Nobel laureate in Physics in 2001. The other is a collection of essays on technology under socialism entitled WOULD TROTSKY WEAR A BLUETOOTH?

Paul has run sixty marathons, loves to travel, and enjoys the outdoors. His hobbies include construction and sports.

Current Research

Josephson is currently working on an NSF-funded project on the history of the conquest of the Russian north during Soviet power, 1930-1990.

Publications

Motorized Obsession: Life, Liberty and the Small Bore Engine (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).

Resources Under RegimesCambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Industrialized NatureWashington, DC: Island Press, 2002.

Red Atom,New York: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1999.

New Atlantis Revisited: The Siberian City of Science, Princeton: 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.