Fascist Pigs: Technoscientific Organisms and the History of Fascism

The annual meetings of the Society of History of Technology (SHOT) and the History of Science Society (HSS) have been important venues for presenting and discussing my work, and I am grateful to many members of those two societies, including John Krige, Thomas Zeller, David Edgerton, Edmund Russell, Barbara Hahn, Paul Josephson, Deborah Fitzgerald, Asif Siddiqi, Prakash Kumar, Gabrielle Hecht, Jenny Leigh Smith, Bruce Hevly, Rosalind Williams, Mark Walker, Eda Kranakis, Nil Disco, Mats Fridlund, Arne Kaijser, Thomas J. Misa, and Steven Usselman.

It was at a SHOT meeting that Wiebe Bijker first urged me to submit my manuscript to the MIT Press. I am delighted to be able to publish my work in the Inside Technology series and to have it appear side by side with many of the books that defined the way I think about technology and society. I thank Wiebe for such a great opportunity. I also thank W. Bernard Carlson, the co-editor of the series. In addition, I want to acknowledge the great work of Katie Helke in getting the manuscript into publishable form, and the many criticisms, suggestions, and commentaries of the anonymous reviewers.

Invitations from Shane Hamilton to a history seminar at the University of Georgia and from John Tresch to a workshop in history and sociology of science, medicine, and technology at the University of Pennsylvania were particularly useful. At the latter workshop, Robert Kohler was generous enough to engage in a deep and illuminating discussion on how fascist my pigs were.

A large part of the final manuscript was prepared while I was at the University of California at Berkeley as a visiting assistant professor at the kind invitation of Cathryn Carson. At UC Berkeley I had the privilege of discussing my research at length not only with Cathryn but also with Massimo Mazzotti, Carolyn Merchant, Thomas W. Laqueur, Brian Delay, and James Vernon.

Since starting at Drexel University in the fall of 2012, I have profited immensely from perceptive and critical readings by my colleague and friend Amy Slaton. Amy was patient and generous enough to work through every chapter of the book with me, pushing for bolder claims and more relevant arguments. The introduction benefited greatly from her exceptional scholarly talents. It has been a treat to sustain a daily conversation with another scholar who gets as excited as I do about the standardization processes of mundane things, be they pigs or cement, oranges or engineering curricula.

I have found at Drexel’s history department a distinctively collegial atmosphere, and I feel honored by the way its faculty members have welcomed me. I am particularly thanful to Donald Stevens, Kathryn Steen, Lloyd Ackert, Debjani Bhattacharya, Alden Young, Eric Brose, Jonson Miller, and Jonathan Seitz. Scott Gabriel Knowles has been an exceedingly encouraging presence in his triple role as department head, historian of technology, and friend. Melissa Mansfield always finds a way of graciously handling bureaucratic problems that otherwise might be insurmountable. Donna Murasko, as dean of the Drexel College of Arts and Sciences, has granted constant institutional support for my research.

I have learned more from interactions with my graduate students than they will ever suspect. I am genuinely moved by the decisions by Marta Macedo, Maria do Mar Gago, Blanca Uribe, and Isabel Bolas to trust me as their dissertation advisor. I am glad to admit that many of the findings presented in this book will soon be considered démodé as a result of their groundbreaking research on cocoa, coffee, cattle, and cement.

Finally, I want to express my deep gratitude to Francisco for urging me to accept the challenge of American academia, and to António for being willing to join me in the adventurous and demanding move to the United States. All this was only possible through Vanessa’s enduring love. When writing, there are always multiple interlocutors inside one’s head. The most interesting things readers might find in this book are due to Vanessa’s constant presence.

Introduction