Bohling is an internationally recognized historian of modern France and Europe whose research explores the intersections of energy, political economy, and the environment. He directs the graduate program in History at PSU and serves as president of the Society for French Historical Studies.
Fields of Expertise:
- Modern France and Europe
- Political economy; history of capitalism; public policy
Visiting Appointments:
Visiting Fellow, Remarque Institute, NYU (2018); Chercheur invité, Département d’histoire, Sciences Po (2020); and Chercheur invité, Centre des recherches internationales, Sciences Po (2021)
Current Projects:
Bohling's forthcoming book, The Nuclear Republic: Globalization, Sovereignty, and Energy Transitions in France, will be published by Stanford University Press in 2027. The book tells the story of how France undertook one of the world’s most ambitious nuclear energy programs, transforming its electricity system and reducing its dependence on fossil fuels. Placing nuclear power within France’s changing energy economy, it reveals how this historic shift became entangled with struggles over sovereignty, economic development, and political power. In doing so, it sheds light on contemporary debates about energy transitions and the climate crisis.
He is currently developing a new history of modern France that reexamines the major turning points in the country’s history through the lens of global capitalism. The project brings economic and business history into conversation with environmental, labor, imperial, and international history, as well as questions of class, race, and gender.
Recent Publications:
The Sober Revolution: Appellation Wine and the Transformation of France (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018).
La Révolution sobre: La France du XXe siècle et l'essor des vins d'appellation trans. Niall Bond and Gaelle Carpentier (Dijon: Éditions Universitaires de Dijon, 2024)
“L’atome vert clair: l’émergence de l’environnementalisme nucléaire en France, 1960s-1970s.” In Christophe Bonneuil and Arthur Delacquis, eds. Mettre l’environnement en gouvernement: France, 1969-1977 (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, forthcoming)
“The Oil from Our Soil: French Alcohol Fuel versus Foreign Oil, 1918-1957.” In Stephen G. Gross and Andrew Needham, eds. New Energies: A History of Energy Transitions in Europe and North America (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 2023): 33-47.
“La Révolution sobre et l’essor des vins de qualité pendant les Trente Glorieuses en France,” in Un débat sans fin, le vin et la santé, Jocelyne Pérard and Claudine Wolikow, eds. Dijon: Laboratoire interdisciplinaire de recherches: sociétés, sensibilités, soin, Université de Bourgogne-Franche Comté, 2022. pp. 81-88.
“Colonial or Continental Power? The Debate over Economic Expansion in Interwar France, 1925-1932,” Contemporary European History 26.2 (May 2017): 217-41.
“The Mendès France Milk Regime: Alcoholism as a Problem of Agricultural Subsidies, 1954-1955,” French Politics, Culture, and Society 32.3 (Winter 2014): 97-120.
“‘Drink Better, But Less’: The Rise of France’s Appellation Wine System in the European Community, 1946-1976,” French Historical Studies 37.3 (Summer 2014): 501-30.
Bohling's shorter essays and reviews may be found in Addiction; The American Historical Review; Asian Review of World Histories; The English Historical Review; Enterprise and Society; Food and Foodways; French Politics, Culture, and Society; H-France; History: Reviews of New Books; Portland Monthly; The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs; and The Social History of Medicine.
Courses Taught:
- HST 103, Modern Europe and the World
- HST 300, Historical Imagination
- HST 358U, Europe from National Unification to European Union
- HST 361, France and the World since 1815
- HST 370, Eurotopia: Creating and Contesting the European Union
- HST 390, Topics in World History: Energy Crises and Transitions
- HST 490/590: Comparative World History: Capitalism
- HST 491/591, Readings in World History: World of Commodities
- HST 492/592, Seminar in World History: World of Commodities