Electronics and the electricity that powers them have come to define the international and domestic political economy of the United States in recent years. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, we lack histories of these things that focus on their production. When Alfred D. Chandler heralded the dawn of the “Electronic Century,” he focused on invention. This panel takes a different approach, exposing the labor, materials, and technics integral to its making. The panel demonstrates how an exploration of electronic production not only sheds new light on the history of the 20th century, but also helps us better understand the problems of the electronic 21st century—particularly the disruptions to technology supply chains, a revived “chip war,” and the growth of “green” tech integral to the energy transition. The intensification and uptick in frequency of natural disasters, debates over the meaning of “good, green” jobs, and increasing electricity demand from data centers powering so-called “artificial intelligence” have all added new urgency to this intellectual project.
Histories of electronic production can shed light on these problems in new ways. For example, in a paper on the production of computer components in South Korea by Minnesota-based supercomputer producer, Control Data Corporation, Coon shows how gains made by assemblers in terms of wages and working conditions were hemmed in by the priorities of the US’s Cold War developmental empire. In a paper on the extractive industries that serve as materials suppliers for electronics producers, Powell unearths the upstream firms and natural resources, like quartz-based silicon, that make our digital, data-centered world possible. Finally, in a paper on the transition from coal to gas in US electricity production, Kodres-O’Brien sheds light on the dominant role played by technology and economics in the electricity sector’s first and so far only energy transition. Together, these papers prompt us to face the above contemporary challenges with a historical sensibility, recognizing both their familiarities and novelties.