Reviews
“The volume resulted from a six-year research effort led by the editors. In his conclusion, van der Vleuten summarizes the essays and helpfully relates their finding to the large-technological system research programme. On balance, the volume points the way for new collaborations between economic, political, cultural, and technological historians.” —Economic History Review, 60, 4 (2007)
Table of Contents
ERIK VAN DER VLEUTEN and ARNE KAIJSER
Prologue and Introduction: Transnational Networks and the Shaping of Contemporary Europe
PART I
GEOPOLITICS AND IDENTITIES IN THE AGE OF RAILS AND TELEGRAPHS
ARISTOTLE TYMPAS and IRENE ANASTASIADOU
1. Constructing Balkan Europe: The Modern Greek Pursuit of an “Iron Egnatia”
ANA PAULA SILVA and MARIA PAULA DIOGO
2. From Host and Hostage: Portugal, Britain, and the Atlantic Telegraph Networks
JUDITH SCHUELER
3. Traveling Towards the “Mountain that has Borne a State”: The Swiss Gotthard Railways
PART II
ELECTRICITY AND COMPETING VISIONS OF A UNITED EUROPE
ALEXANDER GALL
4. Atlantropa: A Technological Vision of a United Europe
HELMUT MAIER
5. Systems Connected: IG Auschwitz, Kaprun, and the Building of European Power Grids up to 1945
PART III
EUROPE CONNECTED, DISCONNECTED, AND RECONNECTED
PÄR BLOMKVIST
6. Roads for Flow—Roads for Peace: Lobbying for a European Highway System
LÉONARD LABORIE
7. A Missing Link? Telecommunications Networks and European Integration 1945–1970
GEERT VERBONG
8. Dutch Power Relations: From German Occupation to The French Connection
PER HÖGSELIUS
9. Connecting East and West? Electricity Systems in the Baltic Region
PART IV
REFLECTIONS ON INFRASTRUCTURES
ERIK VAN DER VLEUTEN
10. Understanding Network Societies: Two Decades of Large Technical System Studies
Notes on Contributors, Index of Names
