Anker, Peder

Peder Anker (pronounced /PAY-dur anchor/; born May 27, 1966, in Oslo, Norway) is a historian of environmental sciences, specializing in the history of ecology and ecological architecture and design. Anker is currently a Professor of History of Science at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. Anker has received research fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the Dibner Institute and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and been a visiting scholar at both Columbia University and University of Oslo. He is the author of The Power of The Periphery: How Norway Became an Environmental Pioneer for the World (Cambridge University Press, 2020). This interdisciplinary book explores the history of environmental sciences in Norway from the publishing of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring until the Rio Conference in 1992. He is also the author of From Bauhaus to Eco-House: A History of Ecological Design (2010) and Imperial Ecology: Environmental Order in the British Empire, 1895-1945 (2001). In 2022 he published a book in Norwegian, Livet er best ute: Friluftslivets Historie og filosofi (Kagge 2022). His latest book is For the Love of Bombs: The Trail of Nuclear Suffering (Anthem Press, 2025).