Andrew S. Denning

Andrew Denning studies mobility in twentieth-century Europe and beyond. Using the tools of cultural, technological, and environmental history, he examines the movement of people, goods, ideas, and practices to reconstruct transnational and global relationships.

His new book, Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Fueled European Colonialism in Africa is forthcoming with Cornell University Press in 2024. It argues that European powers used road infrastructure and motor vehicles to develop a distinct form of "automotive empire" in Africa between 1895 and 1940. The study's transimperial approach draws connections among Belgian, British, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese colonies to show that the technological and infrastructural imperatives of motor vehicles and roads in Africa shaped colonial governance and social relations, as well as the culture of the automobile in Europe.

He is also co-editor, with Heidi J.S. Tworek (University of British Columbia), of The Interwar World (Routledge, 2024), which offers the first comprehensive, global treatment of the tempestuous interwar decades.

Dr. Denning has also published articles in a wide range of publications, including American Historical Review(see also here), The Atlantic, Environmental History, Journal of Modern History (forthcoming), Technology & Culture, and Central European History.