Publications
Books
For the Love of Bombs: The Trail of Nuclear Suffering, (London: Anthem Press, 2025).
Livet er best ute: Friluftslivets historie og filosofi, (Oslo: Kagge Forlag, 2022).
The Power of the Periphery: How Norway Became an Environmental Pioneer for the World, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned, with Mitchell Joachim and Louise Harpman, (Munich: Prestel, 2014).
Samtidshistoriske perspektiver with Magnus Gulbrandsen (et.al.), vol. 7 of Universitetet i Oslos historie, (Oslo: Unipub, 2011). I am the author of ”Den store økologiske vekkelsen som har hjemsøkt vårt land,” 103-171, 461-479.
From Bauhaus to Ecohouse: A History of Ecological Design, (Baton rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010).
Chinese edition: 从包豪斯到生态建筑, published by 西方近现代建筑五书, 2013.
Imperial Ecology: Environmental Order in the British Empire, 1895-1945. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001).
Edited volumes
School of the Earth: Gallatin Reimagined in 2061, with Mitchell Joachim, (New York: Gallatin School, 2017).
Edvard Munchs Aulamalerier: Fra kontroversielt prosjekt til nasjonalskatt, with Patricia G. Berman, (Oslo: Messel Forlag, 2011).
Miljø og menneske: Kritiske perspektiver, with Tarjei Rønnow, (Oslo: Gyldendal, 2002).
Play
Frack Off! A Puppet Play, with Michael D. Dinwiddie, (New York: Barnes and Noble, 2025).
Peer-Reviewed Journals
“Burning Down the House,” with Mitchell Joachim, Log, forthcoming 2026.
“Design Against Extinction at New York University,” with Mitchell Joachim, Spool, 10:1 (2023), 121-132.
“A History of Uranium Mining in Canada,” JAm It! 8 (2023), 5-23.
“Cycles and circulation: a theme in the history of biology and medicine“, with Nick Hopwood et.al., History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43:89 (2021), 1-39.
“Deep Impact: Animal-, Plant- or Insect-Aided Design as techniques to mitigate stress on urban non-human Species,” Terreform ONE, Mitchel Joachim, Peder Anker, Nicholas Gervasi, Topos Magazine, 112 (Sept. 2020), 32-37.
“Anthropocene Architecture: Design Earth’s Geostories” with Nina Edwards Anker, The Avery Review 29 (Feb. 2018).
Republished in: Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment, (Barcelona: Actar, 2018), 206-213.
“A pioneer country? A history of Norwegian climate politics,” Climatic Change, (March 2016), 1-13.
“The Call for a New EcoTheology in Norway,” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 7:2 (2013), 187-207.
“Viewing the Earth from Without or from Within,” with Nina Edwards Anker, New Geographies 4 (2011), 89-94.
“Seeing Pink: The Eco-Art of Simon Starling,” Journal of Visual Art Practice 7 (2008), 3-9.
“Science as a Vacation: A History of Ecology in Norway,” History of Science, 45 (2007), 455-479.
German translation: “Wissenschaft als Urlaub: Eine Geschichte der Ökologie in Norwegen,” in Tue Greenfort: Eine Berggeschichte, (Dornbirn: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2012), 26-57.
Norwegian translation: ”Vitenskap som ferie: En historie om økologidebatten i Norge,” i Kunnskapens betingelser, John Peter Collett (et.al.) (eds.), (Oslo: Vidarforlaget, 2009), 29-55.
“Buckminster Fuller as Captain of Spaceship Earth,” Minerva, 39 (2007), 417-434.
“Graphic Language: Herbert Bayer’s Environmental Design,” Environmental History, 12 (2007), 254-279.
“The Closed World of Ecological Architecture,” The Journal of Architecture, 10 (2005), 527-552.
Republished as: “Ouroboros Architecture,” in The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture, Charissa Terranova and MeredithTromble (eds), (London: Routledge, 2016), 112-135.
“The Bauhaus of Nature,” Modernism/Modernity, 12 (2005), 229-251.
“The Ecological Colonization of Space,” Environmental History, 10 (2005), 239-268.
“A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes,” Philosophy and Geography, 7 (2004), 261-266.
“The Economy of Nature in the Botany of Nehemiah Grew,” Archives of Natural History, 31 (2004), 191-207.
“The Politics of Ecology in South Africa on the Radical Left,” Journal of the History of Biology, 37 (2004), 303-331.
“The Philosopher’s Cabin and the Household of Nature,” Ethics, Place and Environment, 6 (2003), 131-141. Translated into Italian as “Il rifugio del filosofo e la dimora della natura,” Riga 46 (2023), 207-221. [PDF]
“The Context of Ecosystem Theory,” Ecosystems, 5 (2002), 611-613.
”The Dream of the Biocentric Community and the Structure of Utopias,” with Nina Witoszek, Worldviews, 2 (1998), 239-256.
“On Ultimate Norms in Ecosophy T” The Trumpeter (1998)
Book Chapters and Invited Articles
“Coding Plants: An Artificial Reef and Living Kelp Archive,” in Handbook of Experimental Architecture, Rachel Armstrong (ed.), Routledge, forthcoming 2027.
“Ground Zero of Constructivism,” in The Ground: Seminal Projects and Critical Essays, Tom Verebes (ed.)
Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, forthcoming 2026.
“Planifier une nouvelle écologie humaine”, Empires. Une histoire sociale de l’environnement, édité Guillaume Blanc, Antonin Plarier, (Paris: CNRS éditions, 2025), 81-139. Traduit de Imperial Ecology, 2002.
“Coding Plants,” Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective: Exhibition Catalogue, Carlo Ratti (ed.)(Venice, IT: Biennale Architectura, 2025), 100.
“Interview with Mitchell Joachim, Peder Anker, and Nicholas Gervasi” in Transitioning to Sustainable Cities and Communities, Hubert Klumptner (et.al, eds.), (Basel: MDPI Books, 2024), p. 137-148.
“Views from the Outside” with Marty Matlock, Malkit Shoshan, and Hazem Rashed-Ali, Technology | Architecture + Design (TAD), 8(1) (2024), 8–10.
“Everett Mendelsohn: The Harvard Professor,” Journal of the History of Biology, Nov. 21, 2023, 1-5.
“Commemorating COVID,” with Mitchell Joachim and Paul D. Miller, in The Pandemic Effect, Braine Brownell (ed.), (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2023), 44-45.
“Archiagape” in Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape and the Postnatural, Chris Perry (et.al.) (eds.), (Barcelona: Actar, 2022), 298-302.
“Ukichiro Nakaya’s Sense of Snow” with Sverker Sörlin, in Letters Sent from Heaven: Frozen and Vaporized Water: Ukichiro Nakaya and Fujiko Nakaya’s Science and Art, Jonatan Habib Engqvist and Marianne Hultman (eds.), (Oslo: OK Book, 2022), 125-131.
“Time Landscape,” in Expansions: How Will We Live Together? Hashim Sarkis and Ala Tannir (eds.), (Venice: 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2021), 176-178.
“Computing Environmental Design,” Computer Architectures: Constructing the Common Ground, 1945-1980, Theodora Vardouli and Olga Touloumi (eds.), (London: Routledge, 2019), 15-34.
Republished (shorter version): Kjetil Fallan (ed.), The Culture of Nature in the History of Design, (London: Routledge, 2019), 44-57.
“Commentary” in Lydia Kallipoliti, The Architecture of Closed Worlds, (Zürich: Lars Müller Pub., 2018), 175.
“Ressurs-, miljø- og klimahistorie,” i I det lange løp: Festskrift til Jan Eivind Myhre, Arne Hveem Alsvik, Kim Helsvig, Knut Kjeldstadli, Kari Lindbekk (red.), (Oslo: Pax, 2017), 84-101.
“Untangling Intentions: Teaching the History of Climate Politics,” in Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities, Stephen Siperstein, Shane Hall and Stephanie LeMenager (eds.), (New York: Routledge, 2016), 272-278.
“Art in the Anthropocene,” in Jan Freuchen: Columna Translantica, (Oslo: Press, 2015), 112-122.
“Comments” in Behind the Green Door: A Critical Look at Sustainable Architecture through 600 Objects by Rotor, (Oslo: Oslo Architecture Triennale, 2014), 27, 169, 178, 203, 210, 214.
“From Bauhaus to Ecohouse: A Short History of Ecological Design,” in Behind the Green Door: Architecture and the Desire for Sustainability, Helle Benedicte Berg (ed.), (Oslo: Oslo Architecture Triennale, 2013), 129-139.
“Ecological Communication at the Oxford Imperial Forestry Institute,” in Cultivating the Colonies: Colonial States and their Environmental Legacies, Christina Folke Ax (et.a.) (ed.), (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2011), 275-299.
“Plant Community,” in Schwarz, A.E. & K. Jax (Eds.), Ecology Revisited, (Berlin: Springer, 2011), 325-331.
“Scandinavia: Norway,” Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, (Detroit: Gale, 2008), 233-236.
“Outer Space” and “Moon Treaty,” in The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History, Akira Iriye and Pierre-Yves Saunier (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
“Jan Christian Smuts,” New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 2007.
“Bauhaus at the Zoo,” Nature, 439 (23 Feb. 2006), 916.
“Den antiliberale dypøkologien,” in Miljø og menneske. Peder Anker and Tarjei Rønnow (eds.), (Oslo: Gyldendal, 2002), 53-65.
“Outline for a History of Ecological Architecture,” M29: Yearbook for the Oslo School of Architecture, Mari Lending (ed.), (Oslo: The Oslo School of Architecture, 2002), 148-154.
”From Skepticism to Dogmatism and Back: Remarks on the History of Deep Ecology,” in Philosophical Dialogues, Andrew Brennan and Nina Witoszek (eds.) (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), 431-443.
”Risk Management, Rationality and Deep Ecology,” in Environmental Risk and Ethics, Peder Anker (ed.) (Oslo: Centre for Development and the Environment, 1995).
Non-Peer-Reviewed Journals
“General Groves Invented the Atomic Bomb, not Oppenheimer,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July 21,2025.
“Coding Plants” e-flux architecture, May 8, 2025.
“The stories ‘Oppenheimer’ didn’t tell” Washington Post, March 15, 2024. Klassekampen, March 13, 2024.
“The Trail of Nuclear Suffering,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, August 8, 2023.
“The Cooper Union Promotes Russian Architecture. Why?” Archinect, Jan. 21 2023.
“Greenwashing a Nation,” LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture, 15 (Spring 2022), 100-105.
“Periferiens makt: Historia om miljøvitenskapen,” Syn og segn, 3:126 (2020), 69-75.
”Minibiografi: Den ‘grunnøkologiske bevegelse’. Om Jørgen Randers’ faglitterære bidrag” Prosa 6 (2010), 20-23.
“Den økologiske arkitekturens lukkede verden,” (”The closed world of ecological architecture) Byggekunst, 89 nr. 3 (2007), 32-39.
Republished: Vagant 3 (2010), 80-83.
“Biology and the Bauhaus,” Tate etc., 6 (Spring 2006), 48-55.
“USA sett fra Norge sett fra USA,” (USA seen from Norway seen from the USA,” Samtiden, 2 (2004), 124-133.
“Arne Næss sett utenfra,” (“Arne Naess seen from Abroad,”) Samtiden, 4 (2002), 4-19.
“Environmental History versus History of Science,” Reviews in Anthropology, 31 (2002), 309-322.
“Økologisk forvaltning av naturressurser i urbefolkningsområder: et historisk tilbakeblikk,” (”Ecological management of natural resources in indigenous regions: a historical perspective,”) Diedut, 1 (2002), 23-32.
Book Reviews
Anna Åberg and Mogens Rüdiger. Energy in the Nordic World. Technology and Culture 66:1 (2025), 271–72.
Viktor Pál, Tuomas Räsänen and Mikko Saikku (eds.), Green Development or Greenwashing? H-Environment, Dec. 2023.
Ştefan Dorondel and Stelu Şerban (eds.), A New Ecological Order. Development and the transformation of nature in Eastern Europe, Centaurus 65:1 (2023), 201-202.
Marion Grau, Pilgrimage, Landscape, and Identity: Reconstructing Sacred Geographies in Norway, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, June 2023, 326-327
Mark W. Hauser, Mapping Water in Dominica: Enslavement and Environment under Colonialism, The Middle Ground Journal: World History and Global Studies 24 (2022), 16-17.
Marilyn Fischer, Jane Addams’s Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing “Democracy and Social Ethics, Isis 112:1 (March 2021), 195-196.
David Schuyler, Embattled River: The Hudson and Modern American Environmentalism, The Journal of American Studies, 54:4 (2020), E50.
Larry D. Busbea, The Responsive Environment: Design, Aesthetics and the Human in the 1970s. Environmental History, 25:4 (2020).
Scott Kaufman, The Environment and International History. Environmental History, 25:3 (2020), 548-550.
Deborah R. Coen, Climate in Motion: Science, Empire, and the Problem of Scale. H-Environment Roundtable Reviews, Jan. 17. 2020.
Avigail Sachs, Environmental Design: Architecture, Politics and Science in Postwar America, Journal of Architectural Education, Nov. 8 2019.
Mari Lending, Eirik Arff Gulseth Bøhn, Tim Anstey (eds.), Images of Egypt. Arkitketur N, 101 (2019), 112.
Rohan Deb Roy, Malarial Subjects: Empire, Medicine and Nonhumans in British India, 1820–1909. The American Historical Review, 124:1 (Feb. 2019), 229-230.
Panu Pihkala, Early Ecotheology and Joseph Sittler. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture, 12:2 (2018), 247-248.
Jane Carruthers, National Park Science: A Century of Research in South Africa. Journal of the History of Biology, 51 (2018), 617-619.
James Beattie (ed.), Eco-Cultural Networks and the British Empire. Environmental History, 21 (May 2016).
Hannah Gay, The Silwood Circle: A History of Ecology and the Making of Scientific Careers. Annals of Science, 71 (Oct 2014).
Peter G. Ayres. Shaping Ecology: The Life of Arthur Tansley. Isis, 105:2 (June 2014), 446-447.
Michael Ruse, The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet. Centaurus, 56:2 (April 2014), 123-124.
Martin Reuss and Stephen Cutcliffe (eds.), The Illusory Boundary Isis, 103:2 (2012), 388-389.
P.M. Harman, The Culture of Nature in Britain, 1680-1860. Environmental History, Oct 2011, 727-728.
Naomi Oreskes; Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt Isis 102 (2011), 589-590.
Martin Braathen, Alt er arkitektur! Arkitektur N 93 (2011), 70.
Harriet Ritvo,The Dawn of Green, American Historical Review, (2010), 1532-1533.
Nils Johan Ringdal, Georg Valentin von Munthe af Morgenstierne, Historisk tidsskrift 87 (2008), 727-729.
William Beinart and Lotte Hughes, Environment and Empire. The Economic History Review, 61:3 (2008), 740-741.
David McDermott Hughes, From Enslavement to Environmentalism. Canadian Journal of History, 42 (2007), 373-375.
Phil Brown, Toxic Exposures: Contested Illnesses and the Environmental Health Movement
and Gregg Mitman, Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes, Science, 318 (5. Oct. 2007), 46-47.
Paul R. Josephson, Resources under Regimes: Technology, Environment, and the State. Minerva, 45 (2007), 93-95.
Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra. Pioneer America Society Transactions, 30 (2007), 79-81.
James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity, Minerva (Oslo), 83:2 (2007), 134-136.
Kim Cuddington and Beatrix Beisner (eds.), Ecological Paradigms Lost, Isis, 97 (2006), 808.
Bryan Norton, Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management, Annals of Science, 63 (2006), 505-507.
Robert E. Kohler, All Creatures: Naturalists, Collectors, and Biodiversity, 1850-1950, Science, 313 (2006), 1741.
Sharon E. Kingsland, The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890-2000, Centaurus, 48 (2006), 115-116.
Stephen Bocking, Nature’s Experts, Metascience, 15 (2006), 109-111.
Sverker Sörlin, Europas Idéhistoria 1492-1918, vol. 3-4, Historisk tidsskrift, 85 (2006), 165-167.
Londa Schiebinger, Plants and Empire, Metascience, 14 (2005), 489-491.
Einar-Arne Drivenes and Harald Dag Jølle (eds.), Norsk polarhistorie, Isis, 96 (2005), 662.
Fa-Ti Fan, British Naturalists in Qing China, Metascience, 14 (2005), 155-157.
Preben Munthe, Christen Smith: Botaniker og økonom, Økonomisk forum, 4 (2005), 49-50.
Ross A. Slotten, The Heretic in Darwin’s Court, Metascience, 14 (2005), 136-138.
Trausti Valsson, Planning in Iceland, Environmental History, 10 (2005), 122-123.
Michel Bess, The Light-Green Society, Isis, 95 (2004), 743.
Nancy Leys Stepan, Picturing Tropical Nature, Metascience, 13 (2004) 95-97.
Robert E. Kohler, Landscapes and Labscapes, Metascience, 12 (2003), 401-404.
Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (trs.), Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift, 38 (2003), 175-177.
Michael Bravo and Sverker Sörlin (eds.), Narrating the Arctic, Environmental History, 8 (2003), 487-488.
Frank N. Egerton, Hewett Cottrell Watson: Victorian Plant Ecologist and Evolutionist, and Michael Shermer, In Darwin’s Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace, Metascience, 12 (2003), 322-324.
Peter Raby, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life and Alfred Russel Wallace, The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader. Jane R. Camerini (ed.), Metascience, 11 (2002), 413-415.
Johannes Fabian, Out of Our Minds: Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa, Isis, 93 (2002), 291-292.
Timo Myllyntaus and Mikko Saikku (eds.), Encountering the Past in Nature, Environmental History, 7 (2002), 321-322.
Torben Hviid Nielsen (et.al.), Livets tre og kodenes kode, Historisk tidsskrift, 80 (2001), 271-272.
Thomas Potthast, Die Evolution und der Naturschutz, Journal of the History of Biology, 34 (2001), 400-401.
Claus Jensen, Challenger – en organisert katastrofe, Kritikkjournalen, 2 (1994), 36.
Peder Anker 