Making History in the Nation’S Capital Dear American University History Alums

History COLLEGE of ARTS & SCIENCES Making History in the Nation’s Capital Dear American University History Alums,

The study of history at American University has never been better. Enrollment in history courses is the highest it has been in more than a decade, with over 1400 students taking classes in the department in Fall 2007. With over 190 majors, history has also become one of the ten largest and most popular departments in the university. In the spring of 2008, almost 70 graduating seniors will present their senior theses (the product of two semester’s work) at History Day, the department’s annual all-day conference. Graduate applications and enrollment have doubled over the past seven years as well, thanks in no small part to the department’s dynamic Public History Program. (See “Special Events and Programs,” page 6.)

History faculty continue to win recognition for outstanding scholarship and teaching. Professor Emeritus Robert Beisner won the Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize of the Society for the History of American Foreign Relations and the Arthur Ross Book Award (Silver Medal) of the Council on Foreign Relations for his biography, Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War (2006). Newly appointed professor Max Paul Friedman added the 2007 Bernath Lecture Prize to his already impressive list of awards. Andrew Lewis received AU’s 2006-2007 Award for In This Issue Outstanding Teaching in General Education. Kimberly Sims was named the Lloyd George Sealy Fellow at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, as well as a Balch Institute for p. 2 Feature Stories Ethnic Studies Fellow for 2007-2008. And Pamela Nadell, the department’s Patrick Clendenen p. 3 Faculty News Professor of Women’s and Gender History, was named AU Scholar-Teacher of the Year, the most prestigious distinction the university bestows upon its faculty. She is the third history and Notes department faculty member to be so recognized. p. 5 New Faculty p. 6 Special Events AU history faculty also continue to publish important scholarly works. April Shelford and Programs published Transforming the Republic of Letters: Pierre-Daniel Huet and European Intellectual Life, 1650-1720 (University of Rochester Press, 2007); Richard Breitman was the lead editor for Advocate for the Doomed: the Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932-1935 (Indiana University Press, 2007); Alan M. Kraut, together with Deborah Kraut, published Covenant of Care: Newark Beth Israel and the Jewish Hospital in America (Rutgers University American University Press, 2007); and Eric Lohr published The Papers of Grigorii Nikolaevich Trubetskoi (an edited Department of History volume published online by Stanford University, The Hoover Institution, 2006). For the many other publications by AU history faculty, see “Faculty News and Notes” on page 4. 137 Battelle-Tompkins 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20016-8038 Please enjoy this newsletter and let us hear from you. For more information and news, visit the (202) 885-2401 department’s website at www.american.edu/history. (202) 885-6166 (FAX) E-mail: [email protected] www.american.edu/history Robert Grifﬁth Professor and Chair Department of History 2 American University Department of History Newsletter

Breitman Probes U.S. Role Scholar-Teacher of the Year Pamela Nadell in Franks’ Deaths Gives Key Address at Opening Convocation U.S. national security fears helped keep Anne Frank from escaping the Nazis, revealed AU history professor Richard Breitman at a press conference covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and dozens of other newspapers. Recently discovered letters between Anne Frank’s father, Otto, and friends abroad, said Breitman, show that in addi- tion to the effort to hide, detailed in The Diary of Anne Frank, the Frank family pursued doomed plans to escape to both America and Cuba. Drawing on newly-discovered letters from the archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Breitman shows that the failure of these efforts, despite the intervention of prominent U.S. fig- photo by Jeff Watts Pamela Nadell, Patrick Clendenen Professor of History and director of the ures, reveals just how difficult it was for Jewish Studies Program, gives the key address at the 2007 Opening Convocation. Jews to flee the Nazis. These discoveries, he said, deepen our understanding of By tradition, AU’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year gives the key address at Opening Con- the obstacles Holocaust refugees faced. vocation each fall. Even with his vast knowledge of the Using the framework of storytelling, Pamela Nadell, 2007 Scholar-Teacher, noted that subject, Breitman admits that reading new arrivals on campus come not only with suitcases, but with “bags of cultural capital that bind us to other communities.” letters about the Franks’ unsuccessful She urged students to unpack their personal stories—those their parents told them and efforts felt both tragic and surreal. “It’s those they keep inside about themselves—and share them with others, because stories tell strange,” he said. “I came away from about our past, divulge our differences, and reveal our commonalities. reading through the whole set of docu- “These stories have not only informed your lives, they constitute part of your cultural ments, and I said, [if things had gone a capital,” Nadell said. Sharing our stories, she said, enriches our communities, provides little differently] Anne Frank could today us with a sense of community and belonging, and ultimately enables us to change our be a 77-year-old writer living in Bos- communities for the better. Nadell ended with an invitation to new students: “I especially look forward to hearing Excerptton.” from orginal story published in American- Today, “AU’s Breitman probes unearthed documents the stories of your past, which will shape our future together.” detailing Anne Frank’s failed escape,” 2/20/2007 at Excerpt from orginal story published in AmericanToday, “Freshmen welcomed to AU at 2007 Convocation,” american.edu/today. 8/28/2007 at american.edu/today. AU Alum Lonnie Bunch’s Big Challenge On November 8, 2007, distinguished Tell us AU alum Lonnie G. Bunch delivered the Department of History’s annual David J. your story... Brandenburg Lecture. In July, 2005, Bunch, who earned his B.A. and M.A. in history at American University’s American University, was named founding Department of History wants to hear director of the new National Museum of what is happening in the professional lives African-American History and Culture. The museum, the 19th to open as part of the of its alumni. Smithsonian Institution, is scheduled to open in 2014 on the National Mall, adjacent to the To share your recent Washington Monument. accomplishments, please email the From 2001 to 2005, Bunch served as president department at [email protected], of the Chicago Historical Society, one of the or send a letter to: nation’s oldest historical museums. He had previously worked at the California Afro- American Museum and at the Smithsonian’s Department of History National Museum of American History, where 137 Battelle-Tompkins he was associate director for curatorial affairs. American University Bunch received the univcrsity’s Alumni 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW Achievement Award for 2005 and in 2006 Washington, D.C. 20016-8038 delivered the College of Arts and Sciences’ www.american.edu/history Bishop CC. McCabe Lecture. American University Department of History Newsletter 3 Faculty News and Notes

Mustafa Aksakal. See “New Faculty,” page 5.

Richard Breitman was the lead editor for Advocate for the Doomed: the Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932- 1935, which was published by Indiana University Press in June, 2007. He is currently working on the second volume (1935-45) of this project, sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He also serves as editor of the scholarly journal, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Eileen Findlay’s article, “Portable Roots: Community Building and the Meanings of Return Migration in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1960-2000,” is forthcoming in Gender and History. She is completing a book, tentatively titled, Bregando the Beetﬁelds, Dreaming of Domesticity:

Post-War Puerto Rican Masculinity, photo by Jeff Watts International Labor Migration, and Architect and artist David Macaulay poses with Kathy Franz, AU history professor Colonial Populism. She chaired a and curator of David Macaulay: The Art of Drawing Architecture, session at the Fall 2007 American Studies currently on display at the National Building Museum. Association. American History since 1945 (Houghton In September, 2007, he delivered a plenary Kathy Franz curated the widely- Mifflin, 2007, co-edited with Paula address, “Immigrant Health Professionals in acclaimed exhibition, David Macaulay: Baker). Times of Mass Migration” at a conference, The Art of Drawing Architecture, “Stories Told and Untold: Health Workers National Building Museum, Washington, Kate Haulman. See “New Faculty,” page 5. on the Move,” sponsored by Project Hope. DC (June 21, 2007-May 30, 2008) and published an interview with Macaulay Ira Klein published “Calcutta, Devel- Peter Kuznick, who is on sabbatical leave, in the Museum’s Blueprints Magazine opment, Society and Health, 1870- continues his research on nuclear history (July 2007). She delivered three papers: 1950,” in the Journal of Indian History and recently published two articles. “The “On Saving the Navarro House: Tejano (December, 2006). His article, “Medical Decision to Risk the Future: Harry Truman, Memory in San Antonio, 1960-1978,” Discoveries and Public Health in British the Atomic Bomb, and the Apocalyptic (American Studies Association, October India,” will appear in the December, 2007, Narrative” appeared in the August 2007 issue 2007); “The Peculiar Career of Ella issue of the Journal of Indian History. He of Japan Focus, and “Prophets of Doom or Daggett: Preservation and Tejano Rights is also completing an article on “British Voices of Sanity? The Evolving Discourse in San Antonio, Texas,” (National Policies and Agrarian Change in India,” of Annihilation in the First Decade and a Council Public History, April 2007); and for the Historian. Half of the Nuclear Age” appeared in the “David Macaulay: Drawing as Visual September issue of the Journal of Genocide Archeology,” Speed Museum of Art, Research. Louisville, KY (March 2007). Alan M. Kraut published a new book, Covenant of Care: Newark Beth Israel Allan J. Lichtman has two books Max Paul Friedman. See “New and the Jewish Hospital in America forthcoming in 2008: The Keys to the White Faculty,” page 5. (co-authored with Deborah Kraut) in House 2008 Edition (Rowman & Littlefield) January,2007. A co-edited volume (with and White Protestant Nation: The Rise Mary Frances Giandrea published Hasia Diner and Elliott Barkan), From of the American Conservative Movement Episcopal Culture in Late Anglo-Saxon Arrival to Incorporation: Migrants to (Grove/Atlantic). He published “The Keys England (Boydell and Brewer, Ltd., the United States in a Global Era will to the White House: Forecast for 2008,” 2007). She is currently at work on a study be published this winter. In February, Foresight: The International Journal of of changing conceptions of holiness in 2007 he delivered two lectures at the Applied Forecasting (Fall 2007) and will post-Conquest England. University of California at Berkeley, be the keynote speaker at the International “Silent Strangers: Disease and Nativism Forecasting Summit in February 2008. He Robert Griffith, who continues to chair in an Era of Migration” and “Defending has recently presented papers at the 27th the department, published the third the Faith: The Rise of the Jewish Hospital edition of his reader, Major Problems in in the History of American Health Care.” Faculty News and Notes, continued on page 4 photos courtesy of AU University Publications

Annual International Symposium on Forecasting and the annual the University of Rochester Press as part of its series, Changing meeting of the American Political Science Association. Perspectives on Early Modern Europe. Now at work on new research interests, Shelford presented a paper, “The Slave in the Garden: Andrew J. Lewis is near completion on his manuscript, “The Curious Slave Presences in Natural History Writings on the Seventeenth- and Learned: Natural History in Early Republic America.” He and Eighteenth-Century Caribbean,” at Sciences et savoirs dans received American University’s 2006-2007 Award for Outstanding le monde atlantique francophone (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles) last April Teaching in General Education. His other accomplishments include in Montréal and at the Association of Caribbean Historians annual recent reviews in the Journal of the Early Republic, the Winterthur convention last May in Jamaica. In July, she completed a month- Portfolio, and the William and Mary Quarterly, all of which pale in long library fellowship at the American Philosophical Society in significance to the birth of his second child, Phoebe Olivia. Philadelphia, researching a project on the history of reading in the Caribbean. Eric Lohr recently edited and wrote the introduction for The Papers of Grigorii Nikolaevich Trubetskoi (published online) and wrote the Kimberly Sims is currently on leave, completing a book on “Blacks, concluding chapter in The Cambridge History of Russia: Volume Italians and the Politics of New York City Crime, 1900-1951.” She II Imperial Russia, 1689-1917. He chaired the program committee is the Lloyd George Sealy Fellow at John Jay College of Criminal for the national convention of the American Association for the Justice, CUNY, as well as a Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Fellow Advancement of Slavic Studies and continues to chair the Washington for 2007-2008. Russian History Workshop, a monthly seminar he initiated at Georgetown University three years ago. His numerous recent public EMERITI/AE FACULTY lectures and seminar presentations include three lectures in Germany in 2007 and three in Paris in 2006. He will participate in a workshop Professor Emeritus Robert Beisner won the Society for the History in Kiev on the teaching of nationalism in East Europe in December of American Foreign Relations’ Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize 2007. and the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Book Award (Silver Medal) for his biography, Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold Pamela Nadell was named American University’s Scholar-Teacher of War (2006). the Year for 2007. As Patrick Clendenen Professor of History, she is organizing the inaugural Patrick Clendenen Conference on Women’s Professor Emerita Valerie French is enjoying retirement and having and Gender History, scheduled for March 25-26, 2008 (see “Making time to devote to grandmotherly activities. She and Bob Beisner are History in the Nation’s Capital: Special Events and Programs,” page planning several leisurely travels to both familiar and new places. 6). Recent and forthcoming articles and book chapters include: Her hand is still in ancient history; she serves on the AHA’s Breasted “Engendering Dissent: Women and American Judaism,” in The Prize Committee for the best book about history prior to 1000 CE Religious History of American Women, edited by Catherine Brekus and reviews the occasional article for ancient history journals. (University of North Carolina Press, April 2007); “A Bright New Constellation: Feminism and American Judaism,” The Columbia Distinguished Professor Emerita Bernice Johnson Reagon History of the Jewish People in America, Columbia University Press); collaborated with renowned opera director Robert Wilson to create “Encountering Jewish Feminism, ” in Why is America Different,” The Temptation of St. Anthony, which opened the 2007 Melbourne (New York University Press) and “Bridges to ‘a Judaism Transformed International Art Festival with full houses and great reviews. The by Women’s Wisdom’,” Women Remaking American Judaism (Wayne founder and artistic director of Sweet Honey and the Rock, Professor State University Press). Reagon served as a consultant on the expansion of the Albany Georgia Civil Rights Museum and Institute, scheduled to reopen Anna Nelson was awarded a Public Policy Fellowship at the August, 2008. She also serves on the Scholar Advisory Group of Woodrow Wilson Center (Summer 2007). Her article, “ The National the new Smithsonian Museum for African American Culture and Security State: Ubiquitous and Endless,” appeared in The Long War, History, directed by AU alum Lonnie Bunch (see “AU Alum Lonnie edited by Andrew Bacevich (Columbia University Press, 2007). She Bunch’s Big Challenge,” page 2). She is currently at work on a participated in a panel discussion on civil liberties vs. national security sacred music audio/book project featuring songs and stories about published in Focus, a newsletter of the American Bar Association the meaning of songs from the period of slavery. (Summer 2007) and delivered public lectures at Gettysburg College and the Smithsonian Institution. Professor Emeritus Roger Brown continues to teach courses on the history of the American Revolution and Early Republic. His April Shelford’s Transforming the Republic of Letters: Pierre-Daniel generous gifts to the department have supported five graduate Huet and European Intellectual Life, 1650-1720, was published by students working on the final stages of their dissertations. American University Department of History Newsletter 5 The Department of History Welcomes Three New Faculty Members

photo by Jeff Watts photo by Jeff Watts photo by Jessica Tabak Mustafa Aksakal, Assistant Max Paul Friedman, Associate Kate Haulman, Assistant Professor Professor (PhD, Princeton Professor (PhD, University of (PhD, Cornell University), joins University), joins the faculty at California, Berkeley), joins the the faculty at American University American University after teach- faculty at American University after teaching at the University ing at Monmouth University. His after teaching at Florida State of Alabama and Ohio State research fields include the Ottoman University. A diplomatic University. Focusing on the history Empire, the Middle East, and world historian, his research interests of Early America, her teaching and history. His teaching includes a include twentieth century research interests include cultural focus on the history of Islamic U.S. foreign relations, broadly history, women’s/gender studies, societies with particular attention defined. His book Nazis and and material and visual culture. to the treatment of minorities, Good Neighbors: The United She is the author of “Fashion and the political uses of religious and States Campaign against the the Culture Wars of Revolutionary ethnic symbols, and the history of Germans of Latin America in Philadelphia,” William and Mary imperialism and nationalism in the World War II (Cambridge 2003) Quarterly (October 2005); “Room modern age. In 2003, he won the won both the Herbert Hoover in Back: Before and Beyond the Bayard and Cleveland E. Dodge Book Prize in U.S. History and Nation in Women’s and Gender Memorial Prize at Princeton for the A.B. Thomas Book Prize in History,” Journal of Women’s Best Dissertation in Near Eastern Latin American Studies. He co- History (Spring 2003); and Studies. In 2004–05, he was a edited Partisan Histories: The “Defining American Women’s Mellon Fellow in International Past in Contemporary Global History,” the introductory essay Studies at the Library of Congress. Politics (Palgrave Macmillan to the fourth edition of Major He is the author of “‘Not by 2005), and his article, “There Problems in American Women’s those old books of international Goes the Neighborhood: History (Houghton Mifflin 2006). law, but only by war’: Ottoman Blacklisting Germans and She is currently completing a Intellectuals on the Eve of the the Evanescence of the Good manuscript entitled Political Great War,” Diplomacy and Neighbor Policy,” Diplomatic Modes: Fashion and Power in Statecraft (September 2004) and History (September 2003), won 18th-Century America and was “Enver Pasha’s Fait Accompli, or the Bernath Article Prize from recently a National Endowment Necessity? The Ottoman Decision the Society for Historians of for the Humanities fellow at the for War in 1914,” Toplumsal Tarih American Foreign Relations. In Winterthur Museum and Library. (September 2006). He is currently 2007, he was awarded SHAFR’s completing a book on the Ottoman Bernath Lecture Prize. He is Empire’s entry into the First World currently working on a history War, tentatively titled, Uncertain of anti-Americanism and foreign Warriors: The Ottoman Road to perceptions of U.S. foreign policy War in 1914. during the Cold War. 6 American University Department of History Newsletter Making History in the Nation’s Capital: Special Events and Programs photo courtesy of University Publications

The Patrick Clendenen Conference on Women’s and Gender History. Beginning in 1894, before the first cornerstone had been laid at AU and long before the university graduated its first class, Mary Eliza Graydon made a series of gifts intended to support “the education of women” and to endow a professorship in history. She named the gifts in honor of her grandfather, Patrick Clendenen, from whom she had inherited a small fortune. For more than a century, the endowment grew, largely unnoticed by university leaders. Beginning in 2006, however, the Department of History began drawing on funds from the endowment to name Pamela Nadell its first Patrick Clendenen Professor of History. On March, 25, 2008, Professor Nadell will convene the department’s inaugural Patrick Clendenen Conference on Women’s and Gender History. Kathy Peiss, Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, will keynote the conference with an address entitled, “Beyond the Gender Turn.” A series of panel discussions will follow, featuring AU alums, faculty, and graduate students. The conference will conclude with a presentation by independent filmmaker Aviva Kempner, “Yoo-hoo Mrs. Goldberg: Narrating Women’s History through Documentary Film.”

Public History at American University. Under the direction of Kathy Franz, the department’s burgeoning Public History Program now enrolls nearly thirty students. Historians regularly engage the public in multiple ways, but public historians dedicate their careers to serving the public in one four broad ﬁelds: museums, historic preservation and cultural resource management, libraries and archives, and digital and documentary media. In all of these areas, the mission of public historians is to document and interpret the past in collaboration with various publics. At AU, graduate students combine rigorous academic coursework with professional training in the ﬁeld to hone their public history skills. The program seeks to nurture the professional development of its students through a practicum, service projects, and a required internship, so that graduates combine education with service to a wider community.

The Nuclear Studies Institute. Founded in 1995 and led by Peter Kuznick, the department’s Nuclear Studies Institute is dedicated to educating the public about crucial aspects of nuclear history. To that end, the institute offers a summer program consisting of two classes at American University plus a third class—a study abroad trip to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kyoto.

The Civil War Institute. Led by Alan Kraut and Ed Smith, the department’s Civil War Institute introduces participants to the key causes and consequences of the Civil War by exploring its remnants and remembrances in the Washington, D.C., area. The intensive program includes visits to sites such as Harper’s Ferry, Antietam, Arlington National Cemetery, the Sherman and Grant Memorials, Howard University, Fort Stevens, the Frederick Douglass Home, and Ford’s Theater.