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International bestselling author Edward Tenner, joined in conversation by Peter J. Dougherty, presents his book "Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences."
Presented in partnership with Labyrinth Books.
About the book (from the publisher):
How did the addition of lifeboats after the Titanic shipwreck contribute to another tragedy in Chicago harbor three years later? How efficient are wild animals as investors, and how do dog breeds become national symbols? Why have scientific breakthroughs so often originated in the study of shadows? How did the file card prepare scholarship and commerce for the rise of electronic data processing, and why did the visual metaphor of the tab survive into today’s graphic interfaces? Why have Amish artisans played an important role in manufacturing advanced technology? Why was United Shoe Machinery the Microsoft of the 1890s? Surprises like these, Edward Tenner believes, can help us deal with the technological issues that confront us now.
Since the 1980s, Edward Tenner has contributed essays on technology, design, and culture to leading magazines, newspapers, and professional journals, and has been interviewed on subjects ranging from medical ethics to typography. Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge—named for one of the paradoxes that can result from the inherent contradictions between consumer safety and product marketing—brings many of Tenner’s essays together into one volume for the first time, accompanied by new introductions by the author on the theme of each work. As an independent historian and public speaker, Tenner has spent his career deploying concepts from economics, engineering, psychology, science, and sociology, to explore both the negative and positive surprises of human ingenuity.
In conversation:
Edward Tenner, Princeton ‘65, is a Distinguished Scholar of the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago and has been a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. A former executive editor for physical science and history at Princeton University Press, he has been a visiting lecturer in the Humanities Council and a visitor in the Princeton departments and programs of geosciences, English, sociology (FRS 151, “Understanding Disasters”), and information technology policy, as well as in the Institute for Advanced Study and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is author of “Why Things Bite Back,” “The Efficiency Paradox,” and, most recently, “Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge.” He is a frequent academic and corporate speaker and has given two mainstage TED Talks. He is on the board of directors of the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
Peter J. Dougherty is editor-at-large of The American Philosophical Society Press, and Fox Family Pavilion Scholar and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the board of trustees of Ithaka. Following his years in commercial book publishing in New York, he worked as an editor at Princeton University Press, which he directed from 2005 through 2017. He has served as president of the Association of American University Presses, on the board of the American Association of Publishers, and on the faculty of the University of Denver Publishing Institute. He was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2023.
Presented in partnership with Labyrinth Books and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Humanities | Author Talks | *Registration Requested |
TAGS: | NEH |
