Robert L. Frost

School of Information
400 West Hall
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

1415 Dixboro Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
(734) 332-0031

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FACULTY APPOINTMENTS:
September 2001-: Associate Professor, School of Information, University of Michigan
2000–2001: Visiting Associate Professor, School of Information, U. of Michigan
1995–1998: Visiting Associate Professor, History, University of Michigan
1987-1995: Assistant to Associate Professor, University at Albany, SUNY
1986-1987:Assistant Professor, American University.
1984-1985: Visiting Assistant Professor, Wabash College.
1983-1984: Visiting Assistant Professor, Carthage College.
Spring 1983: Lecturer, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

EDUCATION:
Ph.D., 1983: University of Wisconsin-Madison
(no degree), 1980-1981: Ecole des Haûtes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris)
M.A., 1978: University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A., 1974: Grinnell College (History and Philosophy)

COURSES TAUGHT:
Women + Technology*, Technology and Managerial Organizations*, Technology in
the Industrial World*, Technology and Social Change*, European Economic History*,
Women in European History, Europe Since 1945, Europe, 1870-1945, Europe Since
1600, France Since Napoléon, American Economic History, The Social Meaning of
Objects (senior seminar), Inventing Women and Men (tutorial), History of Technology
in America*, Issues in American History, Europe Since 1900 (two parts),
Historiography, History: Theory and Method, Social History of Technology,
Communism and Fascism in Interwar Europe, European Civilizations I & II, Making the
Modern Consumer (freshman tutorial), 1984 Revisited (freshman tutorial), Europe
(1500-1814), Europe (1814-Present), European Society in the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries, European Economic History in the 19th and 20th Centuries, State
and the Economy in Europe Since 1900, European Social History*. [Syllabi available
upon request] *denotes graduate course

NON-TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
1985-1986: Energy Analyst, New York State Energy Office. Duties: economic and
social impact modeling, financial analysis modeling, alternative technology
assessment.

1976-1979: Project Assistant, Institute for Research on Poverty, Madison (graduate
economics researcher). Duties: social policy analysis, social science research,
microeconomic research, data base creation, management, and documentation.

CURRENT RESEARCH:
“Mechanical Dreams: Technology, Gender, and Culture in Interwar France;” a study of
industrial rationalization and domestic consumerism in Interwar France. Next
project: “The Perils of Invisibility: Configuring the Modern Technological
Infrastructure.”

PROFESSIONAL DISTINCTIONS:
1992:Kosciusko Foundation Travel Grant (to Poland)
1990-1991:Grantee, NSF Program in the History and Philosophy of Science and
Technology.
January-August1990: Research Associate Award in History of Science and
Technology, La Villette Museum (Paris).
1989: SUNYA Faculty Research Assistance Grant
1987 and 1988:SUNYA Faculty Research Assistance Grant, SUNYA/UUP travel grant.
1985: NEH Summer Seminar, Cornell University Department of Government,
Reassessing Histories of Collective Action.
1984:American Council of Learned Societies International Travel Grant.
1982-1983:Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Fellowship.
1980-1981:French Foreign Ministry Fellowship (Bourse Chateaubriand), Michigan
State University Institute for Public Utilities Fellowship, Electricité de France
Fellowship, University of Wisconsin Department of History Travel Grant.
1976-1977:University of Wisconsin Non-Resident Scholarship.
1974:Graduation with Honors (B.A.).

PUBLICATIONS:

BOOKS:
Alternating Currents: Nationalized Power in France,1946-1970, Cornell University
Press, 1991.
Mechanical Dreams: Technology, Culture, and Gender in Interwar France, under
contract, Stanford University Press.

ARTICLES (ALL REFEREED)
"Fordism and the American Dream in France, 1919-1939," (forthcoming, under
revision).
"La France, la femme et la machine à laver," in Robert Belot, Michel Cotte, and Pierre
Lamard, eds., La Technologie au risque de l'histoire(Paris: Berg, 2000).
"The Culture of Technological Practice: Industrial Rationalization as a Yellow Brick
Road," ICON 2 (October, 1996).
"Mechanical Dreams: Democracy and Technological Discourse in Twentieth-Century
France" inL. Winner (ed.), Democracy in a Technological Society. Kluwer

Publishers, 1992, 51-80; also appearing as Working Paper #58, Senter for
teknologi og menneskelige verdier Forskningsparken, Universitetet i Oslo.
"Semiotic Narratives and French Home Appliances," Techniques & culture 19
(December 1992), 23-46.
"Machine Liberation: Inventing Housewives and Home Appliances in Interwar France,"
French Historical Studies(April, 1993).
"De Quelques effets d'une gestion scientifique," Revue française de gestion70(Sept. -
Oct. 1988).
"The Politics of Technological Change: Labor and Technological Innovation in French
Electrical Power," Technology and Culture XXIX:4 (Fall 1988).
"The Flood of 'Progress': Technocrats and Peasants at Tignes (Savoie), 1946-1952,"
French Historical Studies, XIV:1 (Spring 1985).
"Economists as Nationalised Sector Managers: Reforms of the Electrical Rate Structure
in France, 1951 - 1969,"Cambridge Journal of EconomicsXIV (Fall 1985).
"La Technocratie au pouvior...avec le consentement des Syndicats: La Technologie, les
Syndicats et la Direction à l'Electricité de France, 1946-1968," Le Mouvement
social130 (January-April 1985).
"La machine à laver de l'entre-deux-guerres: Inventer le consommateur en inventant
l'objet," to appear (in French) in Patrick Fridenson, ed., Les objets de la vie
quotidienne (Paris, La Decouverte, 200?).
"Historical Dimensions of High Tech: The Politics and Rhetoric of Progress Talk in
Twentieth- Century France," article manuscript under consideration for
publication.

BOOK REVIEWS AND OTHER NON-REFEREED PUBLICATIONS:
Review of Sabine Barles, La ville délétère: médecins et ingénieurs dans l'espace urbain,
XVIIIe-XIXe siècle, inTechnology and Cultureforthcoming.
Review of Retour sur la condition ouvrière, Stéphane Beaud and Michel Pialoux, French
Politics, Culture, and Society, 2000.
Review of Tocqueville’s Revenge: State, Society, and Economy in Contemporary
France, Jonah D. Levy, Enterprise and Society, Fall, 2000.
Review of Technopoly, Neil Postman, Technology and Culture, July 1993.
Review of State Capitalism and Working-Class Radicalism in the French Aircraft
Industry, Herrick Chapman, Technology and Culture, October 1992.
Review of Paris Sewers and Sewermen: Realities and Representations, Donald Reid,
Technology and Culture, July 1992.
Review of L'Electricite et ses consommateurs, Fabienne Cardot, ed., Journal of
Economic History, March 1990.
Review of La France des Electriciens, L'Association pour l'histoire de l'Electricité en
France, ed., Technology and Culture, October 1989.
Review of Les ingénieurs de la crise, André Grelon, ed., Isis, June, 1989.
Review of L'Electricité dans l'histoire: Problèmes et méthodes,L'Association pour
l'histoire de l'Electricité en France, ed., Journal of Economic History, June 1988.
Review of L'Ingénieur dans la société française, André Thépot, ed., Technology and
Culture, April 1988.
[Outside reviewer of 3-4 article manuscripts and 1-2 book manuscipts per year]

PAPERS AND COMMENTS:
“Looking at Distance Over Time: The Background of Distributed Work,” (with John L.
King), NSF Workshop on Distributed Work, Carmel California, August 2000.
“Packaging Culture in Technologies: Fordism in France, 1919-1939,” Cornell
University European Studies Program, May, 2000.
“The Dialectics of Industrial Development: When Smalland Artisanalare Not
Backwards,” Society for the History of Technology meetings, Detroit, October
1999.
“Colorfast Cultural Contrasts: The Strange Career of French Laundering,” International
Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) meetings, Belfort, France,
August 1999.
"Deconstructing the Rhetoric of Bigness and the Promise of Rationality: Visions of
Decentered Capitalism," Hagley Museum Conference on New Approaches to
Business History, Wilmington, DE, April 1997.
"Sites of Danger, Zones of Comfort: Reconstructing Space in Interwar France,"
conference paper, Society for French Historical Studies meetings, Lexington, KY,
March 1997.
"Historical Dimensions of High Tech: The Politics and Rhetoric of Progress Talk in
Twentieth- Century France," conference paper, American Historical Association
meetings, Atlanta, January 1996.
"The Culture of Technological Practice: Industrial Rationalization as a Blind Alley,"
conference paper, Society for the History of Technology meetings, Charlottesville,
VA, October 1995.
"Consumption, Production and the Making of Social Identities," invited paper
presented at University of California-Santa Cruz conference, "Consumer Culture
and Resistance," November3- 5, 1994
Comment on panel, "Industrial Flexibility: France and the US," conference paper,
Social Science History Association meetings, Baltimore, November 1993.
"Inventing the New Middle Class in Interwar France," conference paper, Society for
French Historical Studies meetings, Chico, CA, March 1993.
The Politics of Display: Large Systems and Small Uses in France," conference paper,
Society for the History of Technology meetings, Stockholm, August 1992.
"Rationalizing Interwar France: Wiring Together the Modernization
Coalition,"conference paper, Society for the History of Technology meetings,
Madison, October 1991.
"Technology Policy, Political Economy, and Democracy: A Comparison of French and
New York Energy Sectors," conference paper, Interdisciplinary Conference on
Science, Technology, and Politics, Lublin, Poland, September 1991.
"Fordism in France," conference paper, NY State Association of European Historians
meetings, Albany, September 1991.
Comment on Panel, "Art and Industrial Culture in Interwar France," conference paper,
Society for French Historical Studies meetings, Vancouver, BC, March 1991.
"Assembly Lines and Vacuum Cleaners: Reinventing the American Dream in Interwar
France," conference paper, American Studies Association meetings, New Orleans,
November 1990.

"L'Utopie et les pratiques industrielles en France et l'Amérique pendant l'entre-deux-
guerres," paper presented at conference on Comparative History of Science and
Technology, La Villette Museum, Paris, May 1990.
"Machine Liberation: Inventing Appliances and Inventing Housewives in Interwar
France," conference paper, Society for French Historical Studies meetings,
Columbus, OH, March 1990.
Comment on Panel, "Constructing Computers," Society for the History of Technology
meetings, Sacramento, October 1989.
"Constructing Machines and Constructing Cultures in Twentieth Century France,"
conference paper, International Society for the Philosophy of Technology
meetings, Bordeaux, France, August 1989.
"Semiotics, Narrative, and the Technological Artifact: Hardware Meets the Software
Script," conference paper, Society for the History of Technology meetings,
Wilmington, DE, October 1988.
"The Culture of Technology: The Construction of Technological and Political-
Economic Change in Twentieth Century France," conference paper, American
Historical Association meetings, Washington, DC, December 1987.
"Images of Progress: Technology as Productive and Domestic Science in France, 1920
- 1960," conference paper, History of Science Society meetings, Raleigh, NC,
October 1987.
"French Labor, Technological Imagery, Domestic Consumerism, and Industrial
Rationalization: Bases for a New Approach to Twentieth Century French Labor
History," conference paper, Society for French Historical Studies meetings,
Minneapolis, March 1987.
"Technological Imagery and the Visions of Progress: The Diffusion of Technological
Culture in France," public lecture, National Museum of American History,
Washington, DC, January 1987
Comment on panel, "A Place to Rest One's Head: Housing in Twentieth Century Paris,"
Western Society for French Historical Studies meetings, Baltimore, MD, November
1986.
"Skill and Technological Innovation in French Electrical Power: A Reassessment of the
Deskilling Thesis," conference paper, Society for the History of Technology
meetings, Pittsburgh, PA, October 1986.
"A 'Socialist' Firm in a Capitalist Economy: The Place of Electricité de France in Postwar
French Political-Economic Structures," conference paper, Economic and Business
History Society meetings, Chicago, April 1985.
"France's False Start in Nuclear Power, 1954-1969," conference paper, Society for the
History of Technology meetings, Cambridge, MA, November 1984.
"L'Implantation de l'Electricité de France: La Morte de l'unité interne, 1947-1963,"
conference paper, Université de Paris conference on nationalizations, May 1984.
"Les Réformes du système de 'welfare' aux Etats-Unis, 1964-1969," conference paper,
Centre de Syndicalisme, Paris, May 1984.
"Technocrats in Power...With Labor's Consent," conference paper, Social Science
History Association meetings, Washington, DC, October 1983.