Joe Pratt is a leading historian of the petroleum industry. He received his undergraduate degree from Rice University and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He taught at UC-Berkeley, the Harvard Business School, and Texas A & M before coming to the University of Houston in 1986 with a joint chair in history and management. He has served as Chair of the History Department and as the Executive Director of the Scholars’ Community, the largest undergraduate retention program at the University of Houston. Professor Pratt has been a consultant for the PBS mini-series on the oil industry, "The Prize," and for the American Experience documentary on the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. He is the editor of the Oil and Regional History Series for the Texas A & M University Press. He is also the founder of the Houston History Project and editor of Houston History, a magazine of popular history.
Teaching
Professor Pratt teaches courses in energy history and regulation, international business, and public history. He has won university teaching awards at UC-Berkeley and the University of Houston and has received the Houston Alumni Organizations award as the Outstanding Faculty Member in College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. His students range from freshmen in the American history survey classes to business executives in the executive MBA programs to graduate students in history seminars.
Research:
Dr. Pratt is the author or co-author of ten books and numerous articles. His research is primarily in energy history and the history of the Houston region. He is currently conducting research on the history of offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico and on the modern history of Exxon.
Selected Publications:
Energy Metropolis: An Environmental History of Houston and the Gulf Coast (edited, with Martin Melosi). (University of Pittsburgh Press, forthcoming).
Voice of the Market Place: A History of the National Petroleum Council (with William Becker and William McClenahan). (Texas A & M University Press, 2002).
Offshore Pioneers: A History of Brown & Root Marine (with Tyler Priest and Christopher Castaneda). (Gulf Publishing Company, 1997).
From Texas to the East: A Strategic History of Texas Eastern Corporation (with Christopher Castaneda). (Texas A&M University Press, 1993).
The Rise of the Corporate Commonwealth: U.S. Business and Public Policy in the Twentieth Century (with Louis Galambos). (Basic Books, 1988).
A Managerial History of Consolidated Edison of New York (Consolidated Edison, 1988).
But Also Good Business: Texas Commerce Banks and the Financing of Houston and Texas (with Walter Buenger). (Texas A&M University Press, 1986).
The Growth of a Refining Region. (JAI Press, 1980).
