Erik Baker

science historian

Boston, US

About

Hi there! I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. I work at the intersection of intellectual history and labor history in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present, with a focus on the history of scientific ideas about work and management. My dissertation, Chasing Entrepreneurship: Meaningful Work and the Sciences of Labor Discipline, 1890-1990, analyzes the development of the concept of "entrepreneurship" and its relationship to conservative critiques of Taylorist scientific management. "Entrepreneurship," I argue, denoted an evolving set of claims about the conditions of meaningful work, grounding a series of management projects that aimed at mitigating worker alienation.  Before arriving at Harvard, I graduated from Northwestern University, where I studied history of science and mathematics. I also write regularly for periodicals including Jacobin and The Drift, where I serve on the editorial board.