Chris Wells specializes in U.S. environmental history with additional interests in
the history of technology, cultural history, and urban history. He has published articles
in Agricultural History, Technology and Culture, and the International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education, and is currently working on a book for the University
of Washington Press titled "Car Country: Automobiles, Roads, and the Origins of the
Modern American Landscape, 1890-1960", which focuses on the environmental
ramifications of reorienting the nation's landscape around automobiles before 1960.
He is also fascinated by contemporary movements--such as green architecture, the New
Urbanism, and Smart Growth--that are trying to remake the world in a more sustainable
fashion. 

EDUCATION: B.A., Williams College, 1995; M.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1997;
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2004. 

Wells has been teaching at Macalester since 2005.

Book Reviews

Link

Review of Cotten Seiler, Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America, Technology and Culture (2010)
 

OpenURL

Review of David N. Lucsko, The Business of Speed: The Hot Rod Industry in America, 1915-1990, Journal of American History (2009)
 

OpenURL

Review of David Blanke, Hell on Wheels: The Promise and Peril of America's Car Culture, 1900-1949, Journal of American History (2008)
 

Link

Review of Sally H. Clarke, Trust and power: Consumers, the modern corporation, and the making of the United States automobile market, Technology and Culture (2008)
 

OpenURL

Review of Mark H. Rose, Bruce E. Seely, and Paul F. Barrett, The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century, H-Urban, H-Net Reviews (2007)
 

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Articles, Peer Reviewed

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Using a Class to Conduct a Carbon Inventory: A Case Study with Practical Results at Macalester College (with Suzanne Savanick Hansen and Christine Manning), International Journal of Sustainability in HIgher Education (2009)
 

PDF

The Death of the Model T: Smooth Roads, Closed Cars, and Technological Maladaption; a translation of "La Morte del Modello T: Strade Pavimentate, Auto Coperte e Tecnologica Desueta", I Frutti di Demetra, Bolletino (2009)
 

Link

The Road to the Model T: Culture, Road Conditions, and Innovation at the Dawn of the American Motor Age, Technology and Culture (2007)
 

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The Changing Nature of Country Roads: Farmers, Reformers, and the Shifting Uses of Rural Space, 1880-1905, Agricultural History (2006)
 

Encyclopedia Articles

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Automobile (with James J. Fink), Dictionary of American History (2003)
 

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Baby Boom, Encyclopedia of American History (2003)
 

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Environmental Movement, Encyclopedia of American History (2003)
 

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Trucking Industry (with Don H. Berkebile), Dictionary of American History (2003)
 

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Automobile Industry, Oxford Companion to United States History (2001)
 

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Essays

Link

Motorists, Engineer-Administrators, and Muddy-Boots Contractors: New Perspectives on the American Highway Revolution, Reviews in American History (2008)
 

Link

Response to Donald E. Worster, 'On John Muir's Trail', Macalester Civic Forum (2008)