Howard P. Segal

Howard P. Segal
Born	Howard Paul Segal (1948-07-15)July 15, 1948 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	November 9, 2020(2020-11-09) (aged 72)
Occupation	Historian
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Franklin and Marshall College (B.A.) Princeton University (M.A.) (Ph.D.)
Subject	History of American technology, utopianism
Notable works	Technological Utopianism in American Culture
Spouse	Deborah D. Rogers ​ ​ (m. 1988)​
Children	2

Howard Paul Segal (July 15, 1948 – November 9, 2020) was an American historian who was a professor of history at the University of Maine. He specialized in research on the history of American technology and American utopianism.

His best known book, Technology in America: A Brief History, was co-written with Alan I Marcus, and named by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book.

Since 1986, Segal's courses at the University of Maine have included the histories of both technology and science.

Early life and education

His father owned M. Segal & Sons, a glove manufacturer in Philadelphia.

Segal attended Franklin & Marshall College, where he completed his B.A. degree in 1970 and was awarded the Zimmerman Graduate Fellowship in History. He received his MA and PhD (1975) degrees at Princeton University. His doctoral thesis was titled Technological utopianism and American culture, 1830-1940.

Career

Segal's early teaching appointments were visiting instructor at Franklin and Marshall College; Taft Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer, University of Cincinnati; Killam Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia; assistant professor at University of Michigan; and Mellon Faculty Fellow at Harvard University. By 1986, he entered the University of Maine's History Department as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 1988 and professor in 1992. He has been elected Bird & Bird Professor of History during two periods at the University of Maine: from 1996 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015. He was periodically interviewed on radio and television to discuss current events in historical perspective.

Bibliography

Books

• Alan I. Marcus, & Segal, H. (1989). Technology in America: A Brief History. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Named An Outstanding Academic Book for 1989 by Choice.
  • 2nd Ed., Revised and Expanded (Harcourt Brace and Co., 1999)
  • 3rd. Ed. Revised and Expanded (McMillian International/Bedford/St. Martin, 2018)
• Segal, H. P. (1994). Future imperfect: The mixed blessings of technology in America. Univ of Massachusetts Press.
• Ezrahi, Y., Mendelsohn, E., Segal, H. P., (Eds.). (1994). Technology, Pessimism, and Postmodernism (Vol. 17). Springer Science & Business Media.
• Segal, H. P. (2005). Technological utopianism in American culture. Syracuse University Press.
• Segal, H. P. (2008). Recasting the machine age: Henry Ford's village industries. Univ of Massachusetts Press.
  • Received the Henry Ford Heritage Association Annual Book Award for Best Book on Henry Ford’s Life and Legacy in 2009.
• Segal, H. P. (2012). Utopias: A brief history from ancient writings to virtual communities (Vol. 47). John Wiley & Sons.

Awards and honors

• 2015: Society for Utopian Studies' Lyman Tower Sargent Award for Career Distinguished Scholarship..