History Department
Mark Walker
Job Title
John Bigelow Professor of History
Director of General Education
Research interests
I research and publish on twentieth-century science, including in particular science and technology under National Socialism, and comparisons of science and technology in different political, cultural, and ideological contexts.
Teaching interests
I teach modern European history, with special emphasis on modern German history and the history of ideas, the history of science and technology, with special emphasis on nuclear history, human evolution, and the interaction of science and technology with politics and ideology, and “Big History,” from the origin of the Universe to the present.
Publications
German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, 1939-49 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)
Die Uranmaschine. Mythos und Wirklichkeit der deutschen Atombombe (Berlin, Siedler Verlag, 1990) [German version of German National Socialism …]
Science, Technology, and National Socialism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker (Eds)
Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, and the German Atomic Bomb (Perseus Publishing, 1995)
Science and Ideology: A Comparative History (London: Routledge, 2003)
Politics and Science in Wartime: Comparative International Perspectives on Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, Osiris Volume 20, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) Carola Sachse and Mark Walker (Eds)
Physiker zwischen Autonomie und Anpassung – Die DPG im Dritte Reich (Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2007) Dieter Hoffmann and Mark Walker (Eds)
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society during National Socialism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) Susanne Heim, Carola Sachse , and Mark Walker (Eds)
Physics and Politics: Research and Research Support in Twentieth Century Germany in Comparative Perspective (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2010) Helmuth Trischler and Mark Walker (Eds)
“Fremde Wissenschaftler” im Dritten Reich. Die Debye-Affäre im Kontext (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2011) Dieter Hoffmann and Mark Walker (Eds)
The German Physical Society in the Third Reich: Physicists between Autonomy and Accomodation(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) Dieter Hoffmann and Mark Walker (Editors) [English version of Physiker zwischen …]
The German Research Foundation 1920-1970: Funding Poised between Science and Politics(Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2013) Mark Walker, Karin Orth, Ulrich Herbert, and Rüdiger vom Bruch (Eds)
Biographies in the History of Physics: Actors, Institutions, and Objects (Heidelberg: Springer, forthcoming) Christian Forstner, Dieter Hoffmann, and Mark Walker (Eds)
Additional media
Areas of interest
German history, history of ideas, science and technology, nuclear history, human evolutionAcademic credentials
B.A., Washington University; M.A., Ph.D., Princeton University
Lippman Hall 112
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