Technological Innovation and the Cold War Conference
March 9, 2007
On Friday March 9, 2007 the conference “Technological Innovation and the Cold War,” will bring together papers that examine the impact of Cold War era military innovations on postwar American economic growth. It will take place at the Soda House of the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware between 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Abbreviated program and registration information follows; more details are available at http://www.hagley.org/conferences.html.
PANEL 1: CONCEPTS AND FRAMEWORKS
Philip Scranton (Rutgers University and Hagley Library), “The Challenges of Technological Uncertainty”
David Edgerton (Imperial College of London) “Science, Technology and the British Warfare State”
John Krige (Georgia Institute of Technology), “Impediments to Military Innovation in a Transnational European Context”
PANEL 2: PROCUREMENT AND INNOVATION
Glen Asner (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), “Military Research and Commercial Innovation at Boeing, Westinghouse, and Sperry Rand”
Jonathan Aylen (PREST, Manchester Business School), “Bloodhound on my trail: Ferranti’s Adaptation of Military Hardware to Process Control Computer”
PANEL 3: THINGS
Hyungsub Choi (Chemical Heritage Foundation and Johns Hopkins University), “Integrating the Circuit, Integrating the Military: Politics of Electronic Miniaturization in Cold War America”
Jonathan Coopersmith (Texas A&M University), “Military Support of the Fax Industry: Opportunity of Obstacle?”
Eric S. Hintz (University of Pennsylvania), “The Button Cell Battery: From Wartime Necessity to Commercial Giant”
PANEL 4: IDEAS
Dima Adamsky (Harvard University), “Strategic Culture and Emulation of Military Ideas: The Conceptual Interaction between the Soviet Military-Technical Revolution and the American Revolution in Military Affairs”
Till Geiger (University of Manchester), “The Mutual Weapons Development Program and the Failure of Transatlantic Co-operation in Weapons Procurement, 1954-1961”
The conference is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. Lunch is $15 and dinner $40. To register or obtain more information contact Carol Lockman at 302-658-2400, ext. 243, or [email protected].
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As a historian of technology I can vouch for the excellence of the three scholars speaking on the ‘concepts and frameworks’ panel.