Professor Peter Thorsheim
Environmental Humanities Fellow, September - November, 2026
Home institution: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Peter Thorsheim is a historian of modern Britain whose work explores technology, war, culture, the environment, and the body. After studying history and technology policy at Carleton College in Minnesota, he earned a doctorate in British history from the University of Wisconsin--Madison. He is currently a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he joined the faculty in 2000. Peter is the author of two monographs: Inventing Pollution: Coal, Smoke, and Culture in Britain since 1800, published by Ohio University Press in 2006, and Waste into Weapons: Recycling in Britain during the Second World War, published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. His most recent book is A Mighty City under Threat: The Environmental History of London, 1800-2000, co-edited with the late Bill Luckin, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2020.
Project Title: Chemical Weapons, the Environment, and Health in Britain and the British Empire
Scholars have written extensively about the use of poisonous gases during the First World War, but they have devoted far less attention to the manufacture of war gases, chemical experimentation conducted on humans and animals, and the eventual disposal of chemical agents. Although Britain did not use mustard gas or other lethal chemical agents in combat after 1918, it continued to produce, stockpile, experiment with, and ultimately dispose of millions of pounds of highly toxic substances. Accidents and spills, as well as experimental exposure, caused serious health problems for workers, soldiers, members of the public, and other living things.