Merritt Roe Smith
Encyclopedia
Merritt Roe Smith is an American historian
, and the Leverett and William Cutten Professor of the History of Technology, at MIT.
, and Pennsylvania State University
with a Ph.D. His research focuses on the history of technological innovation and social change.
He currently teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
., and is writing a monograph on technology and the American Civil War.
Smith is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and past president of the Society for the History of Technology.
(reprint 1980)
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, and the Leverett and William Cutten Professor of the History of Technology, at MIT.
Life
Smith graduated from Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, and Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
with a Ph.D. His research focuses on the history of technological innovation and social change.
He currently teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
., and is writing a monograph on technology and the American Civil War.
Smith is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and past president of the Society for the History of Technology.
Awards
- nominated 1977 Pulitzer Prize in History.
- Leonardo da Vinci Medal, from Society for the History of Technology
- 1977 Frederick Jackson Turner AwardFrederick Jackson Turner AwardThe Frederick Jackson Turner Award, is given each year by the Organization of American Historians for an author's first book on American history.It was started in 1959, by Mississippi Valley Historical Association, as the Prize Studies Award....
Works
- "Technology, Industrialization, and the Idea of Progress in America"
- "Industry, Technology, and the 'Labor Question' in 19th-Century America"
(reprint 1980)
- Major Problems in the History of American Technology (1998), co-edited with Gregory Clancey (reprint 2006)