Historian Michael Miller has published extensively in the fields of modern French and European history, business history, and maritime history. He received his BA at Northwestern University in 1967 and his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. Before joining the University of Miami faculty, he taught at Rice University and Syracuse University. His books include The Bon Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 1869-1920 (1981) and Shanghai on the Métro: Spies, Intrigue, and the French Between the Wars (1994). His most recent work, Europe and the Maritime World: A Twentieth-Century History (2012), was awarded the 2013 Hagley Prize for the best book in business history and the Alfred and Fay Chandler Book Award for 2010-2012. Miller has held fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, German Marshall Fund, Fulbright program, and Harvard Business School. In 2014, he received the University of Miami Provost’s Award for Scholarly Activity.
In his Academy project, Miller used French waterways to propose a different framework for exploring the intersection of French geography, history, and identity. While the prevailing approach to waterway history has long focused on human engineering, power, and environmental change, Miller instead explains how France came to be so identified with and by its rivers, streams, and canals. To grasp that identification, he uses archival sources, ranging from disputes about waterway governance to the words of French authors about their rivers and the cities along their banks.
Meet Michael Miller
A short portrait filmed at the Hans Arnhold Center, introducing the work and ideas behind fellows’ projects in Berlin.
Upcoming events
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Past events
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Berlin Journal Articles
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Books
Books written by fellows of the Academy, many begun during a semester in Berlin.
Videos
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France and Its Rivers
Historian Michael Miller uses French waterways to propose a different framework for exploring the intersection of French geography, history, and identity.
Explore Past Fellows
Hakim Abderrezak
Marco Abel
David Abraham
