He was born in 1943 to Harold A., and Elizabeth Rivard Adas. He developed an early interest in history through extensive childhood reading, particularly works exploring the impact of warfare on historical development. Though initially discouraged by the rote methods of history instruction in secondary school, he remained an avid reader of bothhistorical fiction andnonfiction.[5]
He attendedWestern Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), where he graduatedsumma cum laude in 1965.[6] During his undergraduate studies, Adas was deeply influenced by historianErnest Breisach, whose courses on the Italian Renaissance underscored the intellectual and pedagogical challenges of historical scholarship.[1] Adas initially considered a career in acting, having participated in school plays and competitive debate during his youth.[1] However, after receiving mixed reviews for minor theatrical roles in his freshman year of college and inspired by the rigor of his history coursework, he shifted his focus to academia.[6]
He graduated fromUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison earning two M.A. degrees, History (1967) and Indian Studies (1968), as well as his Ph.D. in Comparative Tropical History in 1971.[1]
Adas joined the Department of History at Rutgers University in 1970. He was promoted to full professor in 1978 and held various leadership roles, including Department Chair (1979–1981).[7] In 1996, he was named a Board of Governors Chair and the Abraham E. Voorhees Professor of History.[1] He retired from teaching in 2015 but continues to write and contribute to scholarly research.[6]
At Rutgers University, Adas won theJohn Simon Guggenheim Fellow Award[8] in 1984 and the Warren Susman Teaching Award in 1987.[9] He won the NJ-NEH Book Award in 1990, and theDexter Prize in 1991 forMachines as the Measure of Men. In 1992, he won the Teacher of the Year Award. Adas also won the exclusiveToynbee Prize in 2012.[9]
Adas’s early scholarly work, particularly his first two booksThe Burma Delta: Economic Development and Social Change on an Asian Rice Frontier, 1852–1941[10] andProphets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest and the Colonial Order garnered international attention and played a role in his rapid promotion to full professor atRutgers University.[11] He also collaborated withPeter Stearns andStuart Schwartz on the widely used world history textbookTurbulent Passage: A Global History of the Twentieth Century, co-authoring eight editions.[1]
Adas is known for his seminal bookMachines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance (1989),[12] which explores howWestern societies used technological superiority to justify and reinforce racial hierarchies and imperial ambitions.[13]
His later work focused on the intersection of technology, culture, and empire, most notably inDominance by Design: Technological Imperatives and America's Civilizing Mission (2006),[15] which examined how the United States employed technological rhetoric and power in its imperial pursuits.[16] In 2017, Adas co-authoredEveryman in Vietnam: A Soldier’s Journey into the Quagmire with Joseph Gilch.[17] The book uses letters written by Gilch’s uncle, Private James Gilch, who waskilled in action during theVietnam War, to frame a broader narrative about American involvement and the human cost of the conflict.[18]
Adas is known for his contributions toglobal history, thehistory of technology, and the study ofcolonialism andanticolonial resistance.[19] His scholarship critically examines how Western powers justified imperialism through claims of technological and scientific superiority, while also exploring the responses of colonized societies.[20] One of his works,Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology[21], andIdeologies of Western Dominance (1989), argues thatEuropean colonialism was sustained by the belief in technological supremacy as a marker of civilizational advancement.[22] This book, nominated for both thePulitzer Prize and theNational Book Award.[6]
As noted inThe New York Times review byAlan Charles Kors, Adas's work demonstrates how Europeans came to view scientific and technological achievement as anobjective measure of a civilization's worth by the 18th century, a perspective that fully crystallized during theIndustrial Revolution.[4]His later work, such asDominance by Design (2006), extends this analysis to American modernization projects, revealing how technology served as both a tool of development and a weapon of control.[23]
Adas’s microhistorical approach inEveryman in Vietnam (2018) shifts focus to individual experiences of war, using soldiers' letters to critique grand narratives of U.S. intervention.[17] His current research on Misbegotten Wars and the Decline of Great Powers continues to explore the intersections of militarism, imperialism, and global power shifts.[24]
A proponent ofcomparative anddigital history, Adas advocates for preserving marginalized voices through archives while urging historians to address contemporary issues like climate change and migration through transnational lenses.[1]
Adas, Michael (1974).The Burma delta: economic development and social change on an Asian rice frontier, 1852-1941. American Council of Learned Societies. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN978-0-299-06490-7.
Adas, Michael (1979).Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements against the European Colonial Order (1st ed.). Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.ISBN978-0-8078-9602-0.
Adas, Michael (1995).Machines as the measure of men: science, technology and ideologies of western dominance. Cornell studies in comparative history (5. paperback print ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press.ISBN978-0-8014-9760-5.
Adas, Michael, ed. (1993).Islamic & European expansion: the forging of a global order. Critical perspectives on the past series. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.ISBN978-1-56639-068-2.
Adas, Michael; American Historical Association, eds. (2001).Agricultural and pastoral societies in ancient and classical history. Critical perspectives on the past. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.ISBN978-1-56639-831-2.
Adas, Michael (2009).Dominance by Design: Technological Imperatives and America's Civilizing Mission. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-03216-3.
Adas, Michael (2010).Essays on twentieth-century history. Critical perspectives on the past. American historical association. Philadelphia (Pa.): Temple University Press.ISBN978-1-4399-0269-1.
Adas, Michael; Stearns, Peter N.; Schwartz, Stuart B. (2006).Turbulent passage: a global history of the twentieth century (3rd ed.). New York: Longman.ISBN978-0-321-33890-7.
^abcKonczal, Eddie F."Adas, Michael".Department of History | School of Arts and Sciences - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Retrieved2025-04-28.
^abKonczal, Eddie F."Adas, Michael".Department of History | School of Arts and Sciences - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Retrieved2024-10-14.
