Department Research
Recent Research & Outreach Projects by Faculty & Students
Awards & Honors
Recent Books & Publications
-
The Devil’s Own Purgatory The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War
The Devil’s Own Purgatory is the first complete history of the Union navy’s Mississippi Squadron, a fleet that prowled the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the American Civil War. The squadron battered Confederate forts, participated in combined operations with the army, obliterated the Confederate fleet, protected Union supply lines, fought a river-based counterinsurgency war, raided […]
-
The Women of Antioch: Gender and Political Culture, 1095–1204
The Women of Antioch is both a biography of four women—Constance, Alice, Constance II, and Maria, all connected through marriage or birth to the crusader principality of Antioch—and an analysis of the political cultures within which they maneuvered, including eleventh-century France, Norman Italy, Antioch and Byzantium. The book’s comparative perspective facilitates the discernment of differences and […]
-
Profitable Offices: Corruption, Anticorruption, and the Formation of Venezuela’s Neopatrimonial State, 1908-1948
During the crucial period of its formation, the opposing forces of corruption and anticorruption shaped Venezuela’s new national state and its relationship with society. National strongman Juan Vicente Gómez, who ruled from 1908 to 1935, fastened control over key areas of the economy, extracted wealth from the Venezuelan people, and distributed resources to favorites. Utilizing […]
-
Peoples of a Sonoran Desert Oasis Recovering the Lost History and Culture of Quitobaquito
In the southwestern corner of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, on the border between Arizona and Mexico, one finds Quitobaquito, the second-largest oasis in the Sonoran Desert. There, with some effort, one might also find remnants of once-thriving O’odham communities and their predecessors with roots reaching back at least 12,000 years—along with evidence of their […]
-
Souls under Siege: Stories of War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence
Nicole Archambeau explores how the inhabitants of southern France made sense of the ravages of successive waves of plague, the depredations of mercenary warfare, and the violence of royal succession during the fourteenth century.
-
Colorado Day by Day
Colorado Day by Day is an engaging, this-day-in-history approach to the key figures and forces that have shaped Colorado from ancient times to the present. Historian Derek R. Everett presents a vignette for each day of the calendar year, exploring Colorado’s many facets through distilled tales of people, places, events, and trends. Entries incorporate tales […]
-
Dixie’s Italians: Sicilians, Race, and Citizenship in the Jim Crow Gulf South
Dixie’s Italians is the first book-length study of Sicilians and other Italians in the Jim Crow Gulf South. Through case studies involving lynchings, disenfranchisement efforts, attempts to segregate Sicilian schoolchildren, and turn-of-the-century miscegenation disputes, Jackson explores the racial mobility that Italians and Sicilians experienced. Depending on the location and circumstance, Italians in the Gulf South […]
Books & Publications
-
The Devil’s Own Purgatory The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War
The Devil’s Own Purgatory is the first complete history of the Union navy’s Mississippi Squadron, a fleet that prowled the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the American Civil War. The squadron battered Confederate forts, participated in combined operations with the army, obliterated the Confederate fleet, protected Union supply lines, fought a river-based counterinsurgency war, raided […]
-
The Women of Antioch: Gender and Political Culture, 1095–1204
The Women of Antioch is both a biography of four women—Constance, Alice, Constance II, and Maria, all connected through marriage or birth to the crusader principality of Antioch—and an analysis of the political cultures within which they maneuvered, including eleventh-century France, Norman Italy, Antioch and Byzantium. The book’s comparative perspective facilitates the discernment of differences and […]
-
Profitable Offices: Corruption, Anticorruption, and the Formation of Venezuela’s Neopatrimonial State, 1908-1948
During the crucial period of its formation, the opposing forces of corruption and anticorruption shaped Venezuela’s new national state and its relationship with society. National strongman Juan Vicente Gómez, who ruled from 1908 to 1935, fastened control over key areas of the economy, extracted wealth from the Venezuelan people, and distributed resources to favorites. Utilizing […]
-
New Books Network Interviews Dr. Duffy on her Recent Publication
Tune in here to listen to Dr. Andrea Duffy’s podcast interview with Matthew Brown, New Books Network Host. Chronicling the retreat of mobile pastoralization from Mediterranean coastlines, Andrea Duffy’s Nomad’s Land: Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World (U Nebraska Press, 2019) investigates a mystery: where did the sheep go? Duffy seeks the answer by […]
-
Citizen Explorer: The Life of Zebulon Pike
It was November 1806. The explorers had gone without food for one day, then two. Their leader, not yet thirty, drove on, determined to ascend the great mountain. Waist deep in snow, he reluctantly turned back. But Zebulon Pike had not been defeated. His name remained on the unclimbed peak-and new adventures lay ahead of […]
-
“Public Opinion and Modernity in Venezuela’s Anti-Corruption Trials, 1945-1948” in the Journal of Latin American Studies vol. 51
This article explores the reasons why the most important anti-corruption campaign in twentieth-century Venezuela failed to win sustained support. Employing a constructivist approach to historical actors’ understandings of corruption, it analyses the debates that erupted when the Acción Democrática (Democratic Action, AD) party prosecuted 167 former officials for illicit enrichment. The ensuing debate demonstrates that […]
-
The Intensification and Reorientation of Sunni Jihad Ideology in the Crusader Period
The Intensification and Reorientation of Sunni Jihad Ideology in the Crusader Period examines the important role of Ibn ʿAsākir, including his Forty Hadiths for Inciting Jihad, in the promotion of a renewed jihad ideology in twelfth-century Damascus as part of sultan Nūr al-Dīn’s agenda to revivify Sunnism and fight, under the banner of jihad, Crusader […]
-
“From Yao to Now: Daoism and the Imperialization of the China/Southeast Asia Borderlands” in Asian Ethnicity vol. 18
This article investigates the adoption of Daoist ritual among the Yao peoples in South China and mainland Southeast Asia. The Song Dynasty imperial court patronized new Daoist ritual traditions that harnessed martial deities such as the Thunder Gods. Although these traditions were mostly southern in origin, it is not until the Qing dynasty that we […]
-
“Medical and Scientific Understandings of Emotion” in A Cultural History of Emotions in the Medieval Age (350-1350)
Between 350 CE and 1300 CE, the many changes taking place, especially the Carolingian Renaissance and the emergence of universities, had a significant impact on medical and scientific (or natural philosophical) views of emotion. One of the most important trends over these centuries was an attempt to articulate the causes of emotions and their various […]
-
Colorado Powder Keg: Ski Resorts and the Environmental Movement
Downhill skiing is a vital economic engine for many communities in the Rocky Mountain states, attracting 20 million skier days per season. Colorado is by far the most popular destination, with more than two dozen major ski resorts creating a thriving industry that adds billions to the state’s coffers. But, many ask, at what cost […]
-
“Building an Ecclesiastical Real Estate Empire in Late Imperial China” in The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 104
This article examines the French Catholic missionaries’ property acquisitions in late imperial China. It traces the historical trajectory leading up to the construction of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Guangzhou and the purchase of real estate in the neighborhood surrounding it. It argues that while colonialism contributed greatly to the creation of a real estate […]
-
“The Toiling froy and the Speculating yidene: Discourses of Female Productivization in the Soviet Shtetl,” Jewish History vol. 33
Despite the fact that Jewish women statistically outnumbered men in the former market towns of the Soviet Union, the discourse of the “new Jew” in the 1920s and 1930s focused overwhelmingly on the Jewish male and was debated primarily by men. This article explores what the restructuring of the economic base of the shtetl meant […]
-
The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin
The Great Basin, a stark and beautiful desert filled with sagebrush deserts and mountain ranges, is the epicenter for public lands conflicts. Arising out of the multiple, often incompatible uses created throughout the twentieth century, these struggles reveal the tension inherent within the multiple use concept, a management philosophy that promises equitable access to the […]
-
Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
The arrival of the first steamboat, The New Orleans, in early 1812 touched off an economic revolution in the South. In states west of the Appalachian Mountains, the operation of steamboats quickly grew into a booming business that would lead to new cultural practices and a stronger sectional identity. In Steamboats and the Rise of […]
-
The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
An eye-opening biography of a woman at the intersection of three distinct cultures in colonial America Born and raised in a New England garrison town, Esther Wheelwright (1696–1780) was captured by Wabanaki Indians at age seven. Among them, she became a Catholic and lived like any other young girl in the tribe. At age twelve, […]
-
The Decadence of Delphi: The Oracle in the Second Century AD and Beyond
Examining the final years of Delphic consultation, this monograph argues that the sanctuary operated on two connected, yet distinct levels: the oracle, which was in decline, and the remaining religious, political and social elements at the site which continued to thrive. In contrast to Delphi, other oracular counterparts in Asia Minor, such as Claros and […]
-
Legacies of Dust: Land Use and Labor on the Colorado Plains
The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was the worst ecological disaster in American history. When the rains stopped and the land dried up, farmers and agricultural laborers on the southeastern Colorado plains were forced to adapt to new realities. The severity of the drought coupled with the economic devastation of the Great Depression compelled farmers […]
articles written by our history experts
-
Why protecting wildland is crucial to American freedom and identity
As summer approaches, millions of Americans begin planning or taking trips to state and national parks, seeking to explore the wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities across the nation.
-
Up against Hank Greenberg, baseball’s first Jewish superstar, antisemitism struck out
Hank Greenberg might be the best baseball player you’ve never heard of.
-
What really started the American Civil War?
The U.S. citizenship test – which immigrants must pass before becoming citizens of the United States – has this question: “Name one problem that led to the Civil War.”
-
Penance and plague: How the Black Death changed one of Christianity’s most important rituals
The 14th century is known for catastrophe.
-
Overcrowded US national parks need a reservation system
The exponential growth in visitors is generating pollution and putting wildlife at risk to a degree that threatens the future of the park system.
-
What happened to Confederate money after the Civil War?
When the Confederate army surrendered in April 1865, graybacks lost any remaining value they might have had.
-
Harriet Tubman: Biden revives plan to put a Black woman of faith on the $20 bill
Harriet Tubman worked as a slave, spy and eventually an abolitionist. Her belief in God helped her remain fearless.
-
Union gunboats didn’t just attack rebel military sites – they went after civilian property, too
During the American Civil War, huge metal monsters roamed the Mississippi River.
-
Why are there seven days in a week?
The Babylonians were astute observers and interpreters of the heavens, and it is largely thanks to them that our weeks are seven days long.
-
Trump’s border wall threatens an Arizona oasis with a long, diverse history
While the waters of Quitobaquito have attracted a wide array of peoples for more than 10,000 years, each wave of newcomers tends to erase the evidence of those who came before them.
