Amsterdam University Press has just published Irene Anastasiadou's book Constructing Iron Europe: Transnationalism and Railways in the Interbellum. The book is based on her research done as a PhD candidate in the TIE project. Constructing Iron Europe demonstrates how during the interwar years key players saw railroads as instruments for building a transnational European community. Based on new archival research, Irene's book not only sheds light on patterns of internationalization of railways, but also explores the co-construction of the national and the European in the case of the Greek railways in the Interbellum period.

Order it here.

The Journal of Contemporary History has published an article by Vincent Lagendijk, namely "‘To Consolidate Peace'? The International Electro-technical Community and the Grid for the United States of Europe". The paper is largely based on his PhD work and centres on the confluence of ideas about European integration and a European electricity network. The article shows, first, how ideas of European cooperation were conceived in both circles, and second, how the two came together in an alliance that brought the idea for European grid into the League of Nations (LoN) and International Labour Organization. Non-government organizations in the field of electricity acted as intermediary platforms, and close links between some engineers and politicians enabled a next step. It argues furthermore that such an alliance was made possible through a set of shared ideas, stressing technical networks as an extension of international politics, viewing ‘Europe’ as an obvious unit of optimization, and relying on a ‘technical’ approach rather than political consultation.

The 3rd issue of History and Technology of 2011 features a special issue, edited by Johan Schot and Frank Schipper. This introduction provides a conceptual exploration of infrastructural Europeanism from an institutional point of view, sketching an overview of the term ‘infrastructure’ and discusses the historiography on the important role infrastructures have played in globalization and the formation of the modern nation-state. In addition, the idea of infrastructural Europeanism draws on the governance turn in European integration studies, which has shifted scholarly attention from treaties and treaty-making to the study of day-to-day policies. The issue furthermore contains contributions by TIE-ers Irene Anastasiadou and Vincent Lagendijk, as well as Hans Buiter, Christian Henrich-Franke & Isabel Tölle, Pascal Griset & Valérie Schafer, and Léonard Laborie.

Palgrave just published Materializing Europe: Toward a Transnational History of European Infrastructures. The volume, edited by Alec Badenoch and Andreas Fickers, brings together the state-of-the-art on infrastructure studies from a historical and transnational angle. It is a dynamic volume, combining both full-fledged chapters as well short biographies. The book is direct outcome of the TIE-project with many contributions are from TIE-project members, as well as other infrastructure-history experts.

To catch a first glimpse, Palgrave made the table of contents and the introduction available through their website. Download them here for a preview. The book is on order at Palgrave.
 

The August issue of the journal Contemporary European History (volume 19) contains a review article by Christian Kleinschmidt, entitled "Infrastructure, Networks, (Large) Technical Systems: The 'Hidden Integration' of Europe". While exploring the latest publications related to European integration and infrastructure, he discusses books by Erik van der Vleuten (Networking Europe, edited with Arne Kaijser), Frank Schipper (Driving Europe), and Vincent Lagendijk (Electrifying Europe). With some minor critical notes, Kleinschmidt evaluates our work as very positive and significant.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded TIE-member Vincent Lagendijk with a so-called VENI grant. These grants are supplied to researchers that recently completed their doctorates. It enables them to conduct new and innovative research over a period of three years.

Vincent will use the grant for his proposal Transnationalising the TVA. He will look at the transnational dimensions of the exploitation of international rivers, as inspired by the American Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA, 1933). His research proposal encompasses three cases; the river Mekong, Jordan, and the Danube. He will change to Leiden University in June 2010.

See more at http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOA_7XFCCJ

Johan Schot has acceded to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He is one of 2 new members of the KNAW, which in total has 200 members -- making membership quite prestigious. The active members themselves yearly select who takes the place of retired members.

The KNAW advices the government on developments in science, promotes scientific cooperation both domestically and internationally, and aids in accessing scientific quality of scientific research.