Event Info:

In a Glass Hour: Alfred Crosby

In a Glass Hour is a lecture series devoted to exploring the topic of time from the diverse perspectives of media theorists, scientists, artists, historians, journalists and others. Taking a broadly interdisciplinary approach to this singular subject, the series will point to the elasticity of this pervasive topic.

Alfred Crosby, author of The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250–1600, will speak about time from the historical perspective detailed of Western Europe's adoption of quantitative approaches to time, space, finance, art, and music.

Alfred W. Crosby is an environmental historian and is currently Professor Emeritus of History, Geography, and American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Crosby will speak about time from the historical perspective detailed in his book The Measure of Reality, a work that examines how Western Europe’s rapid and transformative adoption of quantitative approaches to time, space, finance, art, and music from 1250–1600 may be a partial explanation for the extraordinary “success” of European Imperialism.

Curator: Micah Silver

FREE + Open to the Public

Images: Courtesy of Alfred Crosby

Alfred Crosby

Alfred Crosby has received prestigious fellowships for his work, including a Guggenheim, a Fulbright, and awards from the National Institute of Health, National Humanities Institute, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among many others. His interest in epidemiology and demography inspired him to write The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492; America’s Forgotten Pandemic (originally Epidemic and Peace 1918); and Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900. His fascination with several subdivisions of intellectual and technological history produced The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250–1600; Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through History; and Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity’s Unappeasable Appetite for Energy. His work as a historian, he has said, turned him from facing the past to facing the future.