Matthew Farish

I am a historical geographer, and much of my work has been concerned with relationships between militarization, geographical knowledge, and landscapes in the twentieth-century United States. I am currently working on two book projects: A history of the US militarization of the planet in the middle of the twentieth century (funded by SSHRC), looking backward and forward from that period, as understood through the construction and use of climate laboratories, proving grounds, and survival schools; and a series of overlapping essays on urban culture in the US from 1940 to 1990.

Publications

M. Farish and L. Fusco, “The Path to Panarctic: The Emergence of an Extractive Frontier in Arctic Canada, 1948-1958,” Canadian Geographies (2024, https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12923)

M. S. Wiseman and M. Farish, “The Human Sciences at Downsview: Military Research in Cold War Toronto,” in A. Souchen and M. S. Wiseman, eds., Silent Partners: Historical Perspectives on Canada’s Military-Industrial Complex (UBC Press, 2023), 89-111.

M. Farish, “The First Century of US Militarization in Alaska, 1867-1967,” in A. Howkins and P. Roberts, The Cambridge History of the Polar Regions (Cambridge University Press, 2023), 563-592.

M. Farish, “Below the Bombs,” in C. Lauzon and J. O’Brian, eds., Through Post-Atomic Eyes (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), 113-132.

M. Farish, “Making ‘Man in the Arctic’: Academic and Military Entanglements, 1944-49,” in S. Bocking and D. Heidt, eds., Cold Science: Environmental Knowledge in the North American Arctic during the Cold War (Routledge, 2019), 85-106.