Steven A. Walton

Biography

I began my career as a mechanical engineer and then turned to the history of engineering through the history of science and technology. I am principally interested in the intersection of technology, its users, and the technical knowledge that they claim about it. Much of my work, though chronologically diverse, centers on military topics from arms and armor to artillery and the use of scientific instrumentation in war. My teaching focuses on the role of science and technology in the world and I teach on the history and philosophy of technology and science, as well as general courses in European history and military history.

I am currently at work on a number of projects:

• a book-length study on Jaccopo Aconcio and his 1540s fortification treatise.  It looks at this early example of the codification of the trace italienne fortification, Aconcio's positioning his treatise as an example of Renaissance method, and the  positioning of this new knowledge within English society.
• numerous studies related to American ordnance and the West Point Foundry
  • a paper on the earliest U.S. cannon foundries
  • a paper on the question of a national foundry in the US throughout the 19th century.
  • a paper on the art collection of Gouverneur Kemble
• I am also helping edit a number of projects
  • the diaries of Thomas Kelah Wharton during his New York period (1832-35 and 1853-54)
  • an edited volume on From Trebuchet to Cannon: Military Technology 1000-1600
  • an edited volume on Lynn White Jr,'s Medieval Technology and Social Change at 50
  • I am co-editor of the new journal Vulcan: the International Journal for the Social History of Military Technology