JAMES C. WILLIAMS
De Anza College
History
21250 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Cupertino, CA
95014
(960) 650-8193
jcw1@gateway.net

Public Lecture Topics:

  • "Rise of Silicon Valley", Santa Clara County Elder Hostel and San Jose Historical Museum
  • "The Birth of Earthquake Engineering", CSU Northridge and in Lisbon, Portugal
  • "Agriculture in Early California", San Jose Historical Museum

Public Programs:

  • Executive Director, California History Center and Foundation, Cupertino, CA, 1985-1994
  • Historical Advisor to KQED Energy Forum (1980s) and WBGH technology series (1980s)
  • Boardmember of California Historical Society (1990s)
  • President and Board member of Gilroy Historical Society, Morgan Hill Historical Society (1980s)
  • Historical Advisor to San Jose Preservation Action(current) and California History Center (1994-1997)

Publications:

  • Energy and the Making of Modern California, Akron, University of Akron Press, 1997
  • "Getting Housewives the Electric Message: Gender and Energy Marketing in the Early Twentieth Century," in His and Hers: Gender, Consumption and Technology, edited by Roger Horowitz and Arwen Mohen, Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 1998
  • "Energy, Conservation and Modernity: The Failure to Electrify Railroads in the American West," in Technology and Western Landscapes, edited by Stephen Tchudi, Reno, Nevada Humanities Council, 1998
  • "Fuel at Last: Oil and Gas for California," California History, 75, Summer 1996
  • "Earthquake Engineering: Designing Unseen Technology Against Invisible Forces," ICON: Fournal of the International Committee for the History of Technology, 1, 1995
  • "Frederick E. Terman and the Rise of Silicon Valley," Technology in America, 2nd ed., edited by Carroll Pursell, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1990; reprinted in American Heritage of Innovation, 1990, and in The International Journal on Technology Management, 1998

James Williams has been listed in the Directory of California Thinkers since 12-Nov-1999.