HARRY LINTSEN
International Scholar: 1992 Advisory Council: 1992–96 Executive Council Member: 1997–99
Harry had a special charisma; always neatly dressed, with a scarf around his neck and a smile on his face. He moved effortlessly between different social environments: students and research colleagues, deans and rectors, industrial managers and policy makers. With his enthusiasm and personal charm, he could convince them all about the importance of the history of technology.
Harry became the founder of the history of technology as an academic field in the Netherlands, and he gave this field a distinctive research style: a collective approach where researchers from a number of universities collaborated closely for long periods. It started with a six volume book series about the history of technology in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century. The work began in the late 1980s and was finalized in 1995. It was followed by a similar, seven volume book series about the twentieth century. When the last volume in the second series was published in November 2003, the first exemplar was given to Queen Beatrix at a special ceremony. (The latter book series was later synthesized in an English version: Technology and the Making of the Netherlands)
A prerequisite for these two book series was an organization that Harry initiated: the Foundation for the History of Technology (Stichting Historie der Techniek, SHT). He did so by convincing a number of influential industrial managers of the relevance of the history of their own companies and of the technological history of the Netherlands at large. A number of company histories were produced in parallel with the book series. SHT became not only an important funder of much of this research but also provided an administrative foundation.
In total more than hundred scholars were involved in the research and production of these two book series and the company histories. This created funding opportunities for many young scholars and thus the academic field of history of technology grew rapidly in the Netherlands.
The Dutch collective research approach, that Harry pioneered, was later applied at a European level. In 1999, the Tensions of Europe network was established in Eindhoven, involving historians of technology from many European countries including me. It became an extremely fruitful endeavor. In the following two decades, this network organized a number of joint projects and—again—a six volume book series. Harry was not so directly involved in this network, but his disciples in Eindhoven played key roles, as did SHT.
Harry instead continued researching the Dutch history of technology also after his retirement in 2010. For example, he co-authored a book with the title Well-being, Sustainability and Social Development, The Netherlands 1850–2050, focusing on the ecological crisis and growing social inequalities. What was unusual with this book was that it not only looked backwards but also into the future.
The first time I met Harry was at an ICOHTEC conference in Cologne in 1984. It was my very first international conference, and I don’t think Harry had attended many either. We had similar backgrounds: both of us had started out as engineers in applied physics and later switched to the history of technology, a field that was still very small in both our countries at that time. We could speak Dutch together, as I had lived in the Netherlands as a child. All this resulted in a special relation between us—a mutual understanding.
Ten years later, Harry invited me to spend a year as a guest researcher at the Technical University in Delft. Harry was in the typical Dutch way part-time professor both in Delft and Eindhoven, while actually living in Amsterdam! He seemed to be constantly on the move between these cities. However, when we met he never seemed stressed, and he was extremely helpful to my family and me.
During this stay, I gradually realized the key role that Harry played not only in Delft and Eindhoven, but all over the country. He seemed to know every scholar in the field and be engaged in all major projects. I also experienced how his special personality contributed to this. For example, I once attended a lecture he gave at TU Delft, and I could see how he was able to engage students in intense discussions. This is not so easy with technology students, but with his charisma, Harry was able to captivate them.
Harry was the founder of the very vibrant Dutch field of the history of technology. I can think of no other colleague that has played such a key role in any other country.
Arne Kaijser
Publications
Lintsen, Harry. “Review of Technici en de totalitaire verleiding: Het Technisch Gilde en de ‘volkse gemeenschap’ [Technicians and the totalitarian temptation: The Technical Guild and the “people’s community”], by Hans Schippers.” Technology and Culture 65, no. 1 (2024): 39799. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2024.a920550.
Lintsen, Harry. “Review of The Anthropocene and the Humanities: From Climate Change to a New Age of Sustainability, by Carolyn Merchant.” Technology and Culture 62, no. 2 (2021): 604–6. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2021.0089.
Lintsen, Harry. “Review of The Contamination of the Earth. A History of Pollutions in the Industrial Age, by François Jarrige and Thomas le Roux.” Technology and Culture 63, no. 2 (2022): 544–45. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2022.0065.
Harry Lintsen, Frank Veraart, Jan-Pieter Smits, John Grin. Well-being, Sustainability and Social Development, The Netherlands 1850–2050. Cham: Springer, 2018. Open access book.
Trischler, Helmuth. “Review of Well-Being, Sustainability and Social Development: The Netherlands 1850–2050, by Harry Lintsen et al..” Technology and Culture 61, no. 3 (2020): 963–65. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2020.0094.
Johan Schot, Harry Lintsen, and Arie Rip. Technology and the Making of the Netherlands. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010.
Lintsen, Harry. “Two Centuries of Central Water Management in the Netherlands.” Technology and Culture 43, no. 3 (2002): 549–68. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2002.0126.
Johan Schot, Harry Lintsen, Arie Rip and A.A. Albert de la Bruhèze, eds. Techniek in Nederland in de twintigste eeuw [Technology in the Netherlands in the twentieth century]. Seven volumes. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1998–2003. Dutch digital library.
Wachelder, Joseph. “TIN-20: Techniek in Nederland in de twintigste eeuw.” Technology and Culture 46, no. 1 (2005): 187–91. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2005.0053.