Melvin Kranzberg (November 22, 1917 – December 6, 1995) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, and professor of history at Case Western Reserve University from 1952 until 1971. He was a Callaway professor of the history of technology at

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

from 1972 to 1988. Born in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

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, Kranzberg graduated from Amherst College, received a master's and a Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II. He received a Bronze Star for interrogating captured German prisoners and learning the location of Nazi gun emplacements. He was one of two interrogators out of nine in Patton's army who were not killed during the conflict. He received his interrogation training at Camp Ritchie in Maryland, making him one of the

Ritchie Boys The Ritchie Boys were a special collection of soldiers, with sizable numbers of German-Austrian recruits, of Military Intelligence Service officers and enlisted men of World War II who were trained at Camp Ritchie in Washington County, Maryland. ...

. Kranzberg is known for his laws of technology, the first of which states "Technology is neither good nor bad; ''nor is it neutral''."Christopher Mims, "The Six Laws of Technology Everyone Should Know" ''Wall Street Journal'' (Nov. 26, 2017) https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-6-laws-of-technology-everyone-should-know-1511701201 He was one of the founders of the Society for the History of Technology in the United States and long-time editor of its journal '' Technology and Culture''. Kranzberg served as president of the society from 1983 to 1984, and edited the society's journal from 1959 to 1981, when he turned it over to Robert C. Post of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. The society awards a yearly $4000 fellowship named after Kranzberg to doctoral students engaged in the preparation of dissertations on the history of technology. The award is available to students all over the world. In 1967 Kranzberg was awarded the

Leonardo da Vinci Medal The Leonardo da Vinci Medal is the highest award of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), and was first given in 1962. In general this award is granted annually to scholars who have contributed outstandingly to the history of technology ...

by the Society for the History of Technology. Howard P. Segal wrote an informative semi-biographical tribute to Kranzberg in

the Virginia Quarterly Review The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion" ...

. There are two biographical articles by Robert C. Post in Technology and Culture: * "Back at the Start: History and Technology and Culture," T&C 51 (2010): 961–94 * "Chance and Contingency: Putting Mel Kranzberg in Context," T&C 50 (2009): 839–72. Kranzberg helped found the

International Committee for the History of Technology The 'International Committee for the History of Technology'' (ICOHTEC) is an UNESCO-based non-profit-organization of scholars working on the history of technology. It was founded in Paris in 1968, when the Cold War divided the nations in the Eastern ...

Kranzberg's laws of technology

Melvin Kranzberg's six laws of technology state: #Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral. #Invention is the mother of necessity. #Technology comes in packages, big and small. #Although technology might be a prime element in many public issues, nontechnical factors take precedence in technology-policy decisions. #All history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant. #Technology is a very human activity – and so is the history of technology.

References

External links

Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Records, 1956–1998
Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

The 6 Laws of Technology Everyone Should Know
Wall Street Journal, 26 November 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kranzberg, Melvin 1917 births 1995 deaths Amherst College alumni Harvard University alumni Historians of technology Case Western Reserve University faculty Writers from St. Louis Georgia Tech faculty 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Leonardo da Vinci Medal recipients American male non-fiction writers