The University of Georgia, Department of History

Shane Hamilton

20th-century U.S. history; agriculture and rural life; history of technology; history of capitalism

Associate Professor and Associate Director, Center for Virtual History
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005

Office: 318 LeConte
Office Hours: by appointment only
Phone: (706) 542-2538

shamilto@uga.edu

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Shane Hamilton's first book, Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy (Princeton, 2008) won the 2009 Theodore Saloutos Award for Best Book in Agricultural History. He has published articles and reviews in Agricultural History, Business History Review, Enterprise & Society, Reviews in American History, and Technology and Culture. He is currently working on a book project entitled "Supermarket USA: Food and Power in the American Century," which has been funded by a National Science Foundation Scholar's Award. The History News Network selected him in 2008 as a "Top Young Historian."

Research and Teaching Interests

[Capitalism]
[Cultural & Intellectual]
[Environment & Agriculture]
[Political & Legal]
[U.S. 19th & 20th Century]

Selected Publications

"Supermarkets, Free Markets, and the Problem of Buyer Power in the Postwar United States," in What's Good for Business: Business and Politics since World War II, ed. Julian Zelizer and Kim Phillips-Fein (Oxford University Press, 2012) More Info

"Supermarket USA Confronts State Socialism: Airlifting the Technopolitics of Industrial Food Distribution into Cold-War Yugoslavia," in Cold War Kitchen: Americanization, Technology, and European Users, ed. Ruth Oldenziel and Karin Zachmann (MIT Press, 2009) More Info

"The Populist Appeal of Deregulation: Independent Truckers and the Politics of Free Enterprise, 1935-1980," Enterprise & Society (Mar. 2009)

Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy (Princeton University Press, 2008) Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Award for Best Book in U.S. Agricultural History More Info

"Analyzing Commodity Chains: Linkages or Restraints?," in Food Chains: Food Chains: From Farmyard to Shopping Cart, ed. Warren Belasco and Roger Horowitz (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) More Info

"Cold Capitalism: The Political Ecology of Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice," Agricultural History (Fall 2003) Awarded the MIT Siegel Prize and the 2003 Edward E. Everetts Award from the Agricultural History Society

"The Economies and Conveniences of Modern-Day Living: Frozen Food and Mass Marketing, 1945-1965," Business History Review (Spring 2003)

Honors and Awards

Senior Faculty Research Grant in the Humanities and Arts, Willson Center for Humanities and Arts (2012)

Parks-Heggoy Award, UGA History Department, For excellence in graduate student teaching (2011)

Theodore Saloutos Award, Agricultural History Society, Best Book in Agricultural History (2009)

Grant-In-Aid, Rockefeller Archive Center (2007-2008)

Scholar's Award, National Science Foundation, "Supermarket USA: Food, Technology, and Power in the American Century" Award No. 0646662, 2007 (2007)

Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities, University of Georgia Nominee (2007)

Gilbert C. Fite Award, Agricultural History Society, Best Dissertation in Agricultural History (2006)

Herman E. Krooss Prize, Business History Conference, Best Dissertation in Business History (2006)

Junior Faculty Research Grant in the Arts and Humanities, University of Georgia Alumni Research Foundation, (2006)

Fellow in History, Public Policy, and American Politics, Miller Center of Public Affairs, Charlottesville, VA (2004-2005)

Predoctoral Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Washington, DC (2003-2004)

Graduate Fellowship, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Cambridge, MA (2003-2004)

Dissertation Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation, SES-0322268 (2003-2004)

Everett E. Edwards Award, Agricultural History Society, Best Graduate Essay (2003)

Siegel Prize, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Best Essay on Science, Technology, and Society (2003)

Sawyer Fellowship for "Modern Times/Rural Places", Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2001-2002)

Graduate Research Fellowship, Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation (2000)

Courses Taught

HIST2112: U.S. History 1865 to Present [Syllabus]

HIST2112H: U.S. History 1865 to Present, Honors [Syllabus]

HIST3073: Modern America, 1945 to Present [Syllabus]

HIST4020: Food and Power in American History [Syllabus]

HIST4030H: The American Dream (Honors)

HIST4067: History of American Technology [Syllabus]

HIST6020: Food and Power in American History

HIST8112: Colloquium in United States History: 1865 to the present

Dissertations Supervised

Johnson, Timothy, "Growth Industry: Unearthing the Origins of Fertilizer-Fueled Agriculture in America, 1865-1950" (In Progress)

Olsson, Tore, "Green Revolutions: The American South, Mexico, and the Twentieth-Century Remaking of the Rural World" (2013)

MA Theses Supervised

Collins, Levi, "Rooted in the Old Soil: Emma Goldman's Path to Sexual Modernism" (2011)

Johnson, Timothy, "The Growth Industry: Fertilizer and the Politics of Agriculture on the Georgia Cotton Belt, 1840-1900" (2010)