For most readers interested in environmental issues, White is known by only one article: "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis," first published in Science in 1967, and widely reprinted. That article, like most of White's work, grew out of his professional interest in medieval technology, including technology's role in "dominating nature." Born in San Francisco, schooled at Stanford and the Union Theological Seminary, White received a doctorate in history from Harvard University in 1934. He taught at Princeton and Stanford Universities, spent 15 years as the President of Mills College (1943–1958), and retired from his position of university professor of history at the University of California in Los Angeles in 1974.

White received most of the honors his profession could bestow. He was a founding member of the Society for the History of Technology, served as...