Steven D. Lubar

My books ask and answer three related questions: What stories can objects tell us? What stories do we tell about objects? How do we tell them?

I worked as a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History for more than twenty years, researching objects in the collections and helping build some of the museum's landmark permanent exhibitions.

My books reflect this fascination with objects and their stories. History from Things (Smithsonian Press) offers scholarly advice on how objects reveal history. Inside the Lost Museum: Curating, Past and Present (Harvard University Press), praised by Science magazine as "wonderfully comprehensive and intriguing" and called a must-read by Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian. InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions and Engines of Change tell stories of technological change through machines.

And, coming soon: Tools: A Human History (MIT Press, 2027). Eighteen tools explored to reveal how we shaped them—and they shaped us. People making tools, using tools, and telling stories about tools.