# W. Patrick McCray

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/W._Patrick_McCray
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/W._Patrick_McCray.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Patrick_McCray
> Source revision: 1304256401
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

American historian

**W. Patrick McCray** (born 1967) is a professor of history at the [University of California, Santa Barbara](/source/University_of_California%2C_Santa_Barbara). His subjects include the [history of science](/source/History_of_science) and the [history of technology](/source/History_of_technology).[1]

## Life

McCray received a PhD from the University of Arizona in 1996. He is the author or editor of several books on the history of science and technology.

## Works

External audio “Episode 206: Is Space the Place? Trying to Save Humanity by Mining Asteroids”, Science History Institute

- *Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice*, 1999, Ashgate.

- *Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambitions and the Promise of Technology*, 2004, Harvard University Press.

- *Keep Watching the Skies: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age*, 2008, Princeton University Press.

- [*The Visioneers. How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future*](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Visioneers.html?id=i-Xh0i4-mnYC). 2012, Princeton University Press, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-691-13983-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-691-13983-8).

- [*Groovy Science: Knowledge, Innovation, and American Counterculture*](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo23530252.html), co-edited with David Kaiser, 2016, University of Chicago Press, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780226372914](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780226372914)

- [*Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture*](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/making-art-work#:~:text=Patrick%20McCray%20shows%20how%20in,art%20galleries%2C%20and%20university%20campuses.), 2020, MIT Press.

- [*Greedy Science: Creating Knowledge, Making Money and Being Famous in the 1980s*](https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53867/greedy-science?srsltid=AfmBOop3g_uv6nrRtgCAn1DOc5NcbdmcGJ3e4sOPIQggVVrsnAqegwrc), co-edited with Michael D. Gordin, 2025, Johns Hopkins University Press

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-homepage_1-0)** ["W. Patrick McCray"](https://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/w-patrick-mccray/). *Department of History, University of California at Santa Barbara*.

## External links

- [UCSB Home page](http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/w-patrick-mccray)

- [Google Scholar page](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x5F7a6AAAAAJ&hl=en)

- [2016 Davos talk on "Industrial Revolutions"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI06RtB-_q4)

- [2017 Davos panel on "Maintaining Innovation"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd6J_AweAjQ)

### Archival collections

- [Patrick McCray research material for his book, Giant Telescopes, 1904-2003, Niels Bohr Library & Archives](https://libserv.aip.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=Q68114415939T.270936&menu=search&aspect=power&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=rev-all&ri=2&source=%7E%21horizon&index=.GW&term=PATRICK+MCCRAY+RESEARCH+MATERIAL+FOR+HIS+BOOK%2C+GIANT+TELESCOPES&x=0&y=0&aspect=power)

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND WorldCat National United States France BnF data Czech Republic Netherlands Norway Israel Academics Google Scholar Other IdRef SNAC Yale LUX

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [W. Patrick McCray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Patrick_McCray) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Patrick_McCray?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.