He is the author of Russia in a Box: Art and Identity in an Age of Revolution (2005), Perils of Progress: Environmental Disasters in the 20th Century (2010), and the forthcoming biography of the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin (2012). Jenks is co-founder of the Russian History Blog and has published widely in both traditional and digital media on Russian history, environmental history, and the history of science and technology. His current project looks at space flight as a key moment in the formation of transnational forms of collaboration and consciousness.