This issue presents two articles – Adam Plaiss’ ‘Who Gets to Draw the Map? The Contentious Creation of the American Road/Map System, 1917–1926’ and Stefan Krebs’ ‘Standardizing Car Sound – Integrating Europe? International Traffic Noise Abatement and the Emergence of a European Car Identity, 1950-1975’ – that examine twentieth century car culture. Each highlights the role of standardization – one with a primary focus on the United States, the other on Europe – in shaping relations among professionals, governmental entities, and business. These contributions might be profitably read in conjunction with the journal’s Forum on Cotten Seiler’s Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America (Volume 26, Number 4), which engaged related issues.
We inaugurate in this issue an occasional feature, ‘Historiography’, which aims for scholarly examination of historical problems, topics, theory, and trends in literature. As with other features in the journal, it seeks to provide a basis for cross-disciplinary conversation. Michael Neufeld’s ‘The Nazi Aerospace Exodus: Towards a Global, Transnational History’ begins this effort.
Last, but not least, this issue introduces Jennifer Tucker as the editor of the journal’s ‘Images, Technology, and History’ feature. She is an associate professor of history at Wesleyan University, and many of you will know her Nature Exposed: Photography as Eyewitness in Victorian Science (Johns Hopkins University, 2006). She is bringing a broad view of how the visual and visual culture can be constructively integrated into history, especially history of technology. Welcome, Jennifer.