Segal examines the historical connection between technology and utopia, and shows how this connection is not just a contemporary western concept, but one that stretches back several centuries.

Howard P. Segal is Professor of History at the University of Maine, where he has taught since 1986. From 1996-2005 he was Bird Term Professor of History. He has been Director of the Technology and Society Project since 1988. Segal received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University. His books include Technological Utopianism in American Culture (1985; 2d ed. 2005); Future Imperfect: The Mixed Blessings of Technology in America (1994); Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford's Village Industries (2005); and, with Alan Marcus, Technology in America: A Brief History (1989; 2d ed. 1999). His articles and essays have appeared both in academic journals and in more general publications like the New York Times, New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The American Scholar, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He is regular reviewer of books about technology for Nature (London).