history.wisc.edu Fall 2008 News A Conversation with Walter Mirisch (BA ’42) “If you look at the history of blacks in films—from the inception of American films until the late 1960s—In the Heat of the Night was a revolutionary film. This change was brought about by people in the film industry, people like Walter Mirisch, who were humanists and who believed in the brotherhood of mankind and wanted to make films that spoke to the sense of brotherhood in themselves.” Si d n e y Poitier Finding Myself alterMirisch WM: Oh yes. There were some very in History (BA ’42) exem- extraordinary people there at my time. I Life Stories from Our Alumni Wplifies the best was very influenced by William Hesseltine Hollywood has to offer. He is a producer, in American history. I took a wonderful which in his case means he is an essential course in the history of the British Empire part of the film making process—from find- with Paul Knapland. And of course ing the story to editing to post-production. there was Chester Easum, who directed His intelligence, skill, experience, and my undergraduate thesis on the Rome- E-mail your humanity resulted in many films that enrich, Berlin Axis. He was very helpful, and he correspondence to: educate, but most of all provide entertain- taught me a great deal about historical historynewsletter@ ment of the highest order. He tells his story writing. And there were other really lists.wisc.edu. in his recent memoir I Thought We Were excellent people, such as Robert Reynolds Making Movies, Not History (UW Press, in Medieval history, and my advisor, 2008). Recently, he took time from his busy Earl Pomeroy, with whom I studied Latin schedule for an interview with John Tortorice. American history. It takes a little remem- Q: Were there any courses or professors bering to come up with some of these in the history department that you recall names from so long ago. in particular? continued on page 6 Rep r oduced cou oduced rt esy of th of esy e Ac a de m y of Mo y of ti o n Pi c t u r e A rt s & S c i e n ces.

The 1968 Academy Award winner’s circle for In the Heat of the Night. Left to right: Hal ­Ashby, ­, Rod Steiger, Walter Mirisch. From Walter Mirisch’s book I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History (UW Press, 2008). Message from the Chair, David McDonald

istory matters. As I write these another important constituency who appreci- lines the conflict between Russia ate that “history matters”—all those of you who Hand Georgia has reached an uneasy continue to support History at UW–Madison denouement, the “new” China has decisively and who continue to express your devotion to declared its arrival as a global power with the this life-enriching pursuit. In letters, e-mails, Beijing Olympics, and Americans have turned and personal meetings, I’ve been delighted to their attention to a major economic crisis and a learn how well you have absorbed a historian’s memorable presidential election. These events perspective, even while earning distinction in spring from forces and processes that reach fields that bear little apparent connection to much farther back in time and memory than our calling. Two examples come immediately the currently fashionable measures of three- to mind. In February, the department hosted a month economic performance reports, two- or visit by Allan H. “Bud” Selig, the Commissioner four-year electoral terms, or the continually of Major League Baseball and an alumnus of self-refreshing and self-obsolescing twenty-four our department. He had generously agreed to Professor David McDonald hour news cycle. By the same token, these and inaugurate a new annual lecture series entitled other events challenge Panglossian assumptions “What Can You Do With a History Major?” that globalization will efface outmoded nation- In a riveting talk Selig illustrated clearly and alism or regional particularism [see Scotland succinctly the ways in which his study of history or Xinjiang, for example] or that the end of the at the University of Wisconsin helped frame his Cold War declared the “end of history” as the approach to managing the sprawling institutions product of ideological conflict, a contention that associated with the national pastime. In May, seems implausible, for better or worse, wher- I had the pleasure of accompanying John W. ever one looks. Rowe, another of our alumni and CEO of Our department has long championed and Exelon Corporation, to Spring Commence- nurtured this mode of thinking. Frederick Jack- ment, where he received an honorary doctor- son Turner, George Mosse, Gerda Lerner, and ate from the university. Throughout his career Jan Vansina revolutionized their fields of schol- Rowe has sustained an interest in history as an arship with a combination of rigor, originality, avocation, both in his voracious reading, and and thoughtful consideration of evidence. Their also in his family’s endowment of two professor- successors continue to remind us of history’s ships in our department. More broadly, he has centrality to human experience, whether in incorporated the Wisconsin Idea in his life as Steve Stern’s current work on Chilean society’s a citizen. struggle to assimilate and overcome the legacy Selig and Rowe represent only two of the of the Pinochet years, or Ned Blackhawk’s many, many examples I could cite of alumni reflections on the devastating legacy of the ab- who have assimilated and put into practice the sorption of the Southwest basin into the ambit perspectives offered by the study of history. of the European imperial system, Francine Each year brings new evidence of your contin- Hirsch’s research on the overlooked part played ued interest in our shared field of interest and, by the Soviets at Nuremberg, or André Wink’s especially, your support for the department that ongoing study of the religious, cultural, political introduced you to this rich and intellectually and economic ties that connected the hetero- rewarding discipline. My colleagues and I value geneous world of early modern south Asia in your continued attachment to our larger com- ways that resonate into the present. Our success munity. To help strengthen these ties, members in maintaining this signal Wisconsin tradition of the department will continue to visit our is reflected in the continuing high quality of larger alumni communities; we have also begun the graduate students who come here each to expand and simplify our Web site, begin- year for their professional training, and in the ning with an ongoing project to document the reputation the department enjoys as a result of storied past of the History Department. I invite the 300-plus of our PhD recipients teaching at you to visit us at history.wisc.edu and, even institutions throughout North America. more, to maintain contact with us by e-mail, During my term as chair, however, I have letters, or in person, because you matter to had the pleasure of building relationships with history.

2 University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of History Rowe Family Endows a Professorship in Greek History

s president and CEO n Susan Davis (BA ’73) and Miles of the Chicago-based Gerstein (BA ’70) have created a fund to Exelon Corpora- provide opportunities for undergraduates A to pursue their research interests. Miles tion, one of the nation’s Gerstein writes: largest electrical utilities, John Rowe (’67, J.D.’70) is “We have always held a high respect at the forefront of discus- for history and historians dating back to sions about the energy our undergraduate years in Madison, and our ties to the History Department are future of the . different, but strong: Susan’s work as an He directs the innovative archivist has always kept her close to the approach of Exelon to the historical world through her positions at complex issue of energy the Public Library and other needs and greenhouse gas institutions; I received a small stipend emissions through a plan from the History Department that allowed that pledges to cut green- me to visit the Library of Congress to house gas emissions by further my research under the direction of making Exelon’s operations Professor Ed Gargan. This was the most more efficient, cutting the meaningful educational project I have ever energy use of electricity worked on as I learned not only how to conduct historical research, but how to customers, and building synthesize and shape information. I have low-carbon generators to never forgotten the generosity of the replace older less efficient History Department or the support and plants. The plan also allows guidance I received from Ed Gargan. We for the utility to turn a profit want to acknowledge our great education from helping the environ- Jeanne and John Rowe. at UW–Madison, and provide opportuni- ment and providing energy to ties for undergraduates.” its costumers. Recently John Rowe The commitment to education n The History Department has received spoke about his background, and his runs deep in the Rowe family; John, a generous gift from the estate of family his wife, Jeanne, and their son Bill Professor­ Peter K. Cline (BA ’64). The “I was born in a small town in give to public and private educational unrestricted gift was given “In memory of southwest Wisconsin to Welsh par- institutions at all levels, including my mentor George L. Mosse.” Peter Cline ents who were Methodists. The town the Rowe-Clark Math and Science taught history at Earlham College for also included Swedish Lutherans and Academy in a low income neighbor- thirty two years, and was known for the Irish Catholics; all Northern Europe- hood in Chicago. Most recently John, excellence of his teaching and for his deep commitment to the power of history to an immigrants. Religion was the only Jeanne, and Bill have endowed The enrich the lives of students. He was also difference they could fight over, and Rowe Family Professorship in Greek known for his sparkling wit and wicked the distinctions of religious beliefs History at UW–Madison to comple- sense of humor. He passed away in 2007. often crowded out deeper shared ment the professorship in Byzantine n The History Department as part of a convictions. I came to UW–Madison history they endowed in 2000: “I am consortium of Madison area educational with little background in history, and keenly aware of how difficult it is to institutions has received a $900,000 grant my mind was opened to the origins fund the humanities, and history and from the Department of Education to and results of religious strife through also science are particularly mean- enhance and enrich the teaching of Ameri- the centuries. I was inspired by my ingful to me. History provides the can history through connecting teachers teachers George Mosse, Michael lens through which I view a great directly with current cutting edge research Petrovich, , and later many things and the benefits of good in the field. Professors Bill Reese, Jeremi Willard Hurst in history and law. I science to our society are essential to Suri, and Emeritus Professor Stanley Schultz don’t think I could have received a our future.” will work with project coordinator Bill Tish- better education at any other school, ler to create state of the art online learning public or private.” opportunities for teachers. They will also organize and direct a summer institute in the History Department to engage teach- ers in new ways of teaching history to “tech savvy” visually oriented students.

history.wisc.edu 3 A New Chapter for Environmental History at UW–Madison The Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE)

Professor Bill Cronon equally important contributions to foundation for the field of environ- Director (CHE) this great Wisconsin tradition. Ben- mental history (to say nothing of the jamin Horace Hibbard in Agricul- modern environmental movement) ith the creation in 2007 tural Economics wrote a benchmark as we know it today. of the new Center for study of the history of the public Until the founding of CHE, WCulture, History, and lands in the U.S. James Willard however, UW–Madison’s great Environment (CHE), the University Hurst in the Law School focused on strength in the field of environ- of Wisconsin–Madison has consoli- land and resources to become one of mental history was also among its dated its position as almost certainly the greatest American legal histori- greatest weakness. Precisely because the leading institution in the world ans of the twentieth century. John the historical study of environmental studying environmental history from Curtis in Botany produced a bench- change so permeates the intellectual many different disciplinary and mark study of Wisconsin vegetation life of the university, the professors interdisciplinary perspectives. that placed particular emphasis on and students who investigate this UW–Madison has for more than past ecological change. Andrew Hill subject are widely scattered across a century pioneered the study of Clark founded a school of historical different departments and schools. past interactions between human geography that has ever since made Their disciplinary diversity is evident beings and the landscapes and the UW Geography Department from the institutional affiliations of environments they inhabit. Although a leader in people-environment the professors and students who cre- the History Department’s Frederick studies. And Aldo Leopold’s clas- ated and participate in the CHE. Al- Jackson Turner more than a century sic A Sand County Almanac is as though all have an affiliation with the ago put land at the center of his ap- much a work of history as of ecology, Nelson Institute for Environmental proach to American history, scholars teaching its readers to “read the Studies, their primary departmental and scientists from many other UW landscape” as a historical docu- homes are American Indian Studies, departments and schools have made ment. Leopold in many ways laid the Anthropology, Botany, English, For-

CHE Place-Based Workshop Visits Coon Valley, Site of the First Erosion-Control Watershed Project in the U.S.

4 University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of History has run these place-based seminars on the south shore of Lake Superior, in the driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin, and in Yellowstone Na- tional Park. This year, we’ll be visit- ing Chicago and the Indiana Dunes. CHE’s most visible achieve- ment to date was the November 2007 launching of what we intend to become the biennial “Tales from Planet Earth” environmental film series. Starting with a keynote address by the noted environmental writer Bill McKibben, Tales from Planet Earth screened dozens of documen- Celebrating at the “Tales from Planet Earth” film festival, from left: Gregg Mitman, Bill McKibben, filmmaker Judith Helfand, and Bill Cronon. tary films relating to environmental history, some of them classic, some est and Wildlife Ecology, Geography, founding director Gregg Mitman, the of them contemporary, with com- History, History of Science, Journal- initial faculty team began the formal mentaries by filmmakers and scholars ism and Mass Communication, Law, institutional process of petitioning the alike. That fall, two filmmakers in Landscape Architecture, Limnol- university to create the new center. At residence, Judith Helfand and Sarita ogy, Rural Sociology, and Women’s the same time, thanks to Dean Gary Siegel, co-taught with Gregg Mitman Studies. Currently, eight graduate Sandefur, physical space became a seminar in environmental film- students from the History Depart- available in the newly refurbished making for UW students, and the ment are affiliated with the center. Bradley Memorial Building, part of resulting student documentaries were Wonderful though it is to have the old UW Hospital complex. This among the highlights of the weekend. colleagues from so many different gave CHE a physical home with Even though it is still less than disciplines sharing a common inter- student and faculty offices, a lounge, a two years old, CHE has already had a est, the departmental structure of the classroom for seminars, and a theatre huge impact on the study and teach- university can sometimes get in the for viewing documentary films. Then, ing of environmental history at UW– way of their cooperation, especially an anonymous donor provided the Madison. Students applying to many when it comes to training graduate Nelson Institute for Environmental departments on campus, not least students. In an effort to start building Studies with a generous endowment, our own, now clearly regard CHE a stronger intellectual community for the income from which was directed as among the greatest intellectual students and faculty members alike, to supporting CHE as a center for reasons for studying environmental a core group of professors and grad humanities-based environmental history at UW–Madison. Although students, with strong representation work on campus. the challenge of funding and sustain- from the History Department, began Finally, a committee developed a ing the Center for Culture, History, holding a biweekly Environmental new CHE certificate in environmen- and Environment goes on, CHE is History Colloquium in the spring tal history which enables graduate off to a roaring start, and there is semester of 2002. It proved an in- students from any department on great optimism about its future. stant success, with meetings regularly campus to be trained in the field attracting 30–40 participants drawn while learning about the wide range To learn more about CHE, visit the from more than a dozen different de- of disciplines that contribute to it. Web site at http://envhist.wisc. partments, typically divided roughly Among the exciting features of the edu. The next Tales from 1/3 to 2/3 between faculty members new certificate are an interdisciplin- Planet Earth film festival will be and graduate students. ary methods course and an annual in November 2009, and those This initial community-building “place-based seminar” in which fac- interested in attending can effort finally bore fruit during 2007 ulty members and graduate students monitor plans for it at when a remarkable series of events fi- visit a place of environmental and www.nelson.wisc.edu/tales. nally brought CHE into being. Under historical significance to explore and the strong leadership of the center’s analyze it together. Thus far, CHE

history.wisc.edu 5 Me tr o- g o l d w y n

Mirisch Interview -

m difficult to say “it’s only fiction.” The continued from page 1 eye role films such as this play, the influ- r s t Q: You are doing a fantastic job. I ud ence films have on the perception of i don’t think I could remember all of © 1959.os history, on historical memory is hard my professors from not that long ago. to calculate, but it is enormous. In your memoir you mention that WM: Well I hoped it would be that. you were offered a graduate fellow- Thank you for saying that because if ship in history. it resonated with you then all of us WM: Yes. who were involved in the making of the picture accomplished what we Q: But the chair suggested you not sought to do. take it because, quote, “I needed to Walter Mirisch with Tony Curtis and understand that there really wasn’t on the set of Some Like It Hot. Q: Did your study of history at UW– much opportunity for a man like my- Madison have an effect in how you I always thought that it was a shame subsequently interpreted events, on self in the academic world.” You also you hadn’t gone on in history, until I say you considered this an episode of how you chose projects? saw the . Then I knew WM: Obviously, I’ve always been blatant anti-Semitism. you’d done the right thing.” WM: Well, I assumed it was that, interested in historical subjects. although on the other hand he may Q: Oh that’s funny! Through my entire life I’ve done con- just have been giving me good advice WM: So there you are! I’ve had no siderable reading of history, and it’s [laughs]. But at the time that’s what I regrets since then. remained a lifelong interest of mine. felt it was. Q: Yet some of your films have had Q: You made many different kinds of Q: You mention that this was your an enormous impact. films, but your films are above the av- first episode of blatant anti-Semitism. WM: Thank you. I’ve done a number erage films of your contemporaries. Did it open your eyes to how anti- of films with historical background, WM: Well, I hope they have had Semitism operated in those years? such as Wichita. I also produced a some effect on our society. WM: It did to a certain extent. It was biography of Sam Houston called Q: Do you think that today film and one of the rare experiences I had in The First Texan, and an English other media can present history in my young life of what I judged to historical picture about the Black a way that is more effective with be anti-Semitism. I decided not to Prince that was called The Warriors, visually-oriented students? Do you continue in history. and then later on I did the The Battle have any insights into how film can of Midway, about the crucial World be employed in teaching history? Q: Well, history’s loss was Holly- War II battle. wood’s gain. Yet through the films WM: When I was young I wanted that you have produced, you’ve had Q: In the 60s, you made In the Heat to see all the historical films, and I an enormous influence on the trans- of the Night and other movies with learned a great deal from them. They formation of American society. a strong social justice message that often weren’t completely accurate WM: Well maybe. Some years ago I reflected the times. history, and they were often fiction was asked to preside at a session of WM: Yes, but those were really more based on historical events such as the American Historical Association fiction than history, but I hope they the story of Louis Pasteur or the life that was being held in Los Angeles. had some effect on attitudes. of Emile Zola, or whether it was Dr. As I recall it was a session on history Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet or Madame Q: Yet, if cultural evidences, politics, Curie, or Alexander Hamilton; I as it’s been reflected in the movies. are “history in action” then you were I thought that would be fun and so I could go on and on. There have reflecting and influencing the history always been pictures of that type agreed to participate. At the end of of the period in your films. the session an older gentleman came made. They certainly influenced WM: Yes, that’s true. Of course the me, and I am sure many others and up to me and said “I don’t know if civil rights revolution was in process you remember me, but I’m Earl I hope filmmakers will continue to at the very time that we made In the make them. I believe they are very Pomeroy, one of your teachers at Heat of the Night. Madison and I thought I’d come by instructive to people who may not and say hello,” and I said wonderful, Q: If we look back on it, given the have had any other exposure to those thank you, and he said, “You know, enormous impact of the film it is subjects. Tell Us Your Story. Submissions to “Finding Myself in History” can be sent to: [email protected]

6 University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of History Finding Myself in History: The History Department in the Early ’40s

Finding Myself first saw Madi- in History son in January, Life Stories from Our Alumni I 1943, at the end of a sleepless night on a train from . The streets in Madison were packed with several inches of hard snow. The lake was frozen, and students were skating on rinks in front of the State Historical Society. The University had sent me a list of rooming houses, and I took the first room I found, on North Murray Street. The war economy had enabled my father to get a job; my family didn’t need financial help from me. (Both my parents were Swedish immigrants with the three years of schooling given farm children then, and the Depression had hit them hard.) After graduation from high Joyce Fuller with daughter, Anne, Madison, 1953. school, I had worked for a year so that I could attend the University of ideas, his whole person transformed the Daily Cardinal, and carried the Wisconsin. by them, as if thinking were the Langdon Street paper route. I also It was the second winter of U.S. supreme pleasure of life and under- wrote reviews for the paper. participation in World War II, and standing the forces of history the key Short of help in the war years, in New York and along the Atlantic to being fully alive in the world. a local defense plant encouraged coast there were blackouts. With no I decided math was too lonely a anyone with six hours of free time certainty of victory over the Germans pursuit, that I could read literature any hour of any day or night to work and the Japanese, it was a time of by myself. I registered for one history on its assembly line. I became a spot- great anxiety. In Madison, men were class after another: Medieval History welder, working alongside housewives, being drafted for war service—stu- with Professor Post, The Civil War businessmen, professors, other dents and young faculty to the front and Reconstruction with Professor students, and soldiers home on leave. lines, and professors to Washington Hesseltine, and Diplomatic History I worked 20 to 30 hours a week for various war-related jobs. with Professor Harrington. I wrote through most of my college years. At Mathematics and English had a six-credit paper on Thomas Mann, the end of eight semesters, I thought been my favorite subjects in high focusing on his politics. I studied I had to leave, though I was six credits school, history seemed tedious. My Greek and the classical world with short of my history degree. calculus teacher at UW was Professor­ Professor Walter Agard, another It was deeply depressing to be Stanislaw Ulam, a mathematical remarkable humanist. back at home without having fulfilled genius from . He wrote elegant I moved into Groves Coop, the my dream, and for a while I drifted. equations on the blackboard and ex- first interracial house on campus, and Fortunately, I got a job with CARE, plained them in exquisite detail while certainly a significant component of sending help to Europeans still looking dreamily out the window or my university experience. I should suffering from World War II. And I scratching himself somewhere. He was confess that part of the attraction of got involved in early off-Broadway to leave UW for Los Alamos where he Groves was that during the war years theater. By sheer coincidence, I had provided Edward Teller with equa- it was able to rent a fraternity house a small part in a play directed by Uta tions needed for the H-bomb. on North Henry Street between Hagen. (I had seen her in Madison Somehow I got into Merle Lake Mendota and glamorous in Othello, ­opposite Paul Robeson, Curti’s course Social and Intellectual Langdon Street. and I had taken an art history course History. Professor Curti made history With most men off to war, other with her father, Oskar Hagen.) Our thrilling. I had never encountered opportunities for women opened up. play was Tolstoy’s Power of Darkness a man so passionately involved with I became the circulation manager of continued on page 12

history.wisc.edu 7 Bud Selig Visits the Department

On February 28, 2008, Commissioner of Major League ­Baseball Allan H. “Bud” Selig, Jr. (BA ’56) visited the History Department to inaugurate a new lecture series, “What Can You Do With a History Major?”

What Can uring his day-long visit You Do with a History Commissioner Selig had Major? Dlunch with undergraduates, met with graduate students, and lectured to several hundred history majors on how his history major provided him with the critical thinking skills neces- sary for a career in business.

The Mosse Undergraduate Research and Service Award

Ne d Me e r d i n k (BA ’08) insecurity and underdevelopment. recreational programs for children, The Mosse Undergraduate Award and an NGO that investigates and s a student in the History will be used to support Mutuelle reports of human rights violations Department, I have come to Jeunesse Active, a local Congolese and war crimes (all too common) Aunderstand that history exists organization which I was lucky committed throughout North and in the here and now. I have cultivated enough to work with from July 2007 South Kivu provinces. One of the an intense interest in the methods by to January 2008, when I returned to things most kids here really lack is which history interacts with present Madison to complete my undergradu- consistency, so we try to organize social and political conditions, espe- ate degree. I returned to Congo this things that they can look forward cially in sub-Saharan Africa where past August to continue my research to and depend on each week, every history plays out on a very tangible, on the development of local organiza- day. The numbers coming out about practical level. Through my education, tions in regions of the world in transi- the current increase in violence in I was well aware of the legacy of colo- tion away from conflict under the this area are shocking: in the last two nialism throughout central Africa and direction of Professors Neil Kodesh months, more than 200,000 people the role it plays in some of the current (History) and Aliko Songolo (French). in eastern Congo have fled their political conflicts and lack of economic homes due to new fighting. Sixteen development in Africa that limits On October 30, Ned Meerdink villages were raided and burned last access to fundamental rights such as sent an e-mail update, part of week by rebels who then abducted at education, health care, due process, which is quoted below. least 160 children to fight with them. and economic opportunity. Yet it was “I am working for two NGOs The use of rape as a weapon of war is only through personal experience with that work on educational and endemic.” Africans in Africa that I could see how these historical phenomena dominate everyday life, and to witness the lives and strategies of citizens in Uvira/ Sud Kivu, Congo, some of the poor- est, most threatened, and neglected populations in the world. People I met in the Congo were all too aware of the international support and compla- cency that has accompanied the rise of two tyrants, Joseph Désiré Mobutu and Laurent Kabila, who hold large responsibility for the 5.4 million deaths in Congo since 1998. Cur- rent statistics document that 45,000 Congolese die each month due to situations associated with continuing Ned Meerdink visiting Runimgu School, South Kivu, Congo.

8 University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of History Gender Workshop Builds Intellectual Community

Ass o c i at e Pr o f e ss o r Na n En s t a d outside of seminars for people to get Gerda Lerner together and talk about their work.” Gerda Lerner was awarded the ender and Women’s His- Crystal Moten agrees: “I would degree of honorary doctor of letters tory is now an established say you can get lost in the History by on June 5, and integrated part of the Department unless you have a group G 2008, at their 357th commencement department curriculum, with a core of people you feel you can go to. We exercises. of graduate students in the field. saw the workshop as a way to create The citation reads in part “Cred- The idea for a workshop in gender a sense of community among people ited with the development of the history was hatched at a Program interested in the same topics. When curriculum of women’s history at nu- in Gender and Women’s History it came time to talk about our own merous academic institutions, Lerner potluck in January, 2006, as students work, we had relationships with each is widely recognized as having intro- brainstormed what they wanted from other and a supportive environment.” duced women’s history as a formal the program. More academic and For Jeff Hobbs, the element of out- social community was the overriding reach was paramount. “Maybe you’re academic field. A past president of concern. In response, five graduate not primarily a gender historian the Organization of American His- students—Jeff Hobbs, Jenn Holland, but you want to use gender in your torians, she is also well known as an Jessie Manfrin, Crystal Moten and work. We wanted the workshop to advocate of civil and women’s rights Lesley Skousen—took matters into bring everyone interested in gender and was a founding member of the their own hands and initiated the together.” Indeed, even the found- National Organization for Women.” PGWH workshop that has met twice ers did not all know each other well per month ever since. The workshop when they began because they work has a fluid structure: sometimes on diverse topics in three different History Department ­Launches New Undergraduate Web there is a panel of student research countries (England, , and Resource presentations; occasionally faculty the United States) and across four members will present their work. centuries. “I worked with incredibly Students often ask, “What can I do with Workshop participants have viewed dedicated people that I wouldn’t a history major? My parents want to know.” and discussed documentary films, have met otherwise,” says Holland. In response, the History Department dissected theoretical articles, and “It was heady to start something has launched new Web resources for met with speakers who were visit- like this.” students to explore future career paths ing campus to give public talks. The The workshop has been the and to pursue graduate studies. The workshop coordinating committee most successful attempt to address new Web pages provide students with also occasionally organizes entirely the growing pains of the Program in step-by-step guides on how to apply to social events off campus, including a Gender and Women’s History. Once graduate school, information on career party during recruitment week when focused exclusively on U.S. history, opportunities for students holding liberal prospective students visit Madison. the program has for the past several arts degrees, and much more. The Web Entirely graduate-student organized years been transnational in focus, of- pages include a feature that documents and led, the workshop has become fering graduate tracks in U.S., Euro- what our alumni are doing now, as the lifeblood of the top-ranked pean, and Latin American history and well as testimonies and biographies of graduate gender and women’s history team-taught graduate seminars that our alumni so that students are better program. explore gender in history across the able to understand the wide array of The workshop’s founders wanted globe. With ten faculty and dozens of career paths available to them. If you are first and foremost to create more graduate students in the department interested in sharing a brief history of your career path on our Web site, please opportunities to talk about gender who focus primarily or secondarily on e-mail [email protected]. outside of formal seminars. “The gender, the program has an excit- History Department has a phenome- ing new curriculum and dynamic undergrad career exploration nal number of professors and gradu- possibilities to further both transna- history.wisc.edu/undergraduate/ ate students interested in gender,” tional approaches to history as well as career/careers.htm says Jenn Holland, “but had no place broader understandings of gender. graduate school exploration history.wisc.edu/undergraduate/ graduate/graduate.htm

history.wisc.edu 9 Doris G. Quinn Graduate Franklin W. Knight Fellowships (PhD ’69, Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University) Doris G. Quinn started her master’s degree gave the Schomburg Lecture in history at New York University in her in ­October 2008. sixties. She observed that several of her fellow graduate students were working two or three part-time jobs to pay for school and living expenses to finish their graduate degrees. Through her vision and generosity, the Quinn Fellowship was designed to have a significant impact on the quality of historical scholarship in the United States by funding scholars during History Graduate Program Photos their last year of PhD studies. A Quinn Fellow’s “job” is to finish the dissertation without distraction. History grad students Helen LaCroix, Steven Turley, and Michel Hogue received Quinn Fellowships for academic year 2008–09.

History Graduate Student Opportunities Fund Fellowships offered by major foundations and scholarly associations allow graduate students to concentrate on their semi- Grad Advisor Leslie Abadie with grad students Eric O’Connor nar work or dissertations, enhance their academic profiles, and shorten the time it takes to complete their studies. Yet the fellowships often do not cover the costs of tuition and benefits. In response, the History Department has created the ­History Graduate Student Opportuni- ties Fund. The History Department will grant the first fellowships in 2008–09 for the following academic year. Because this is a new endeavor with limited funds, the graduate program welcomes donations. Please use the attached envelope to make your contribution. Associate Professor Neil Liz Preston, Al Senn, and Jane Williams Kodesh and David Gilbert

The History Department has posted a list of PhD recipients on its Web site at history.wisc.edu/databases/db_asp/ phd.asp.

Vikram Tamboli and Leah Webb-Halpern and Crystal Moten ­Genevieve Dorais

10 University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of History Recent Faculty Retirements

Professor William J. Courtenay ­Berkeley, in 1980, and established Emeritus Professor During his forty-two-year teaching himself as an authoritative scholar Paul S. Boyer career in the History Department, in the history of two distinctive yet It is sometimes said Bill Courtenay has earned virtually related veins of thought: the context that historians do every honor offered by UW–Madison that gave rise to the philosophical vi- their most creative and by his field of scholarship. These sion of G. W. F. Hegel, the preemi- work in “retire- honors recognize a truly exceptional nent religious, legal, and historical ment.” The amount and distinguished career as a scholar, philosopher of nineteenth-century and range of a teacher, a trainer of generations Germany, and the formation in the scholarly work Paul of historians—thirty students have eighteenth century of the so-called Boyer has undertaken since his received their doctorates under his doux commerce tradition, associated retirement in 2002 confirms that direction—and an exemplary citizen with the Scottish Enlightenment. historians never really retire. Most of his university and his profession. During his tenure at the Uni- recently, he coedited Religion and the He joined the Department of History versity of Wisconsin–Madison, from Culture of Print in Modern America as an assistant professor in 1966, and 1989 until his retirement in January (UW Press, 2008) with his colleague was awarded a WARF chaired profes- 2008, Dickey enjoyed a distinguished and friend Charles (Chuck) Cohen. sorship in 1988, which he named career as a scholar, a popular and He is also revising chapters of The after the distinguished Wisconsin effective undergraduate teacher, a Enduring Vision: A History of the professor and medievalist Charles rigorous trainer of graduate students, American People, of which he is the Homer Haskins—the historian who and an active participant in depart- coeditor. “I miss teaching, but I love attracted mental affairs. Dickey’s status as one research and writing, and the ability to Madison. “When I first arrived in of the two or three leading English- to work at home with fewer obliga- Madison, WARF funded research language specialists on Hegel is tions allows me to get more work time off for scholars in the humani- founded on his book Hegel: Religion, done. I tend to immerse myself in my ties, something that was not available Economics, and the Politics of the work to the detriment of other at any other school at that time. In Spirit (Cambridge, 1987), a book that aspects of retirement, but I also enjoy addition, the excellent research col- led to a series of other publications, joining my wife, Ann, for travel lections in the UW libraries attracted including a critical edition of Hegel’s especially to visit our grandchildren in me to Madison. The study of medieval Political Writings and substantial Minneapolis and Southampton, history at Wisconsin has a long and contributions to two editions of the England.” The resurgence of interest distinguished record, from Charles Cambridge Companion to Hegel. in political and religious messianism Homer Haskins, his student Robert As generations of his graduate and the growth of groups with an Reynolds, Gaines Post, David Herlihy, students can attest, Larry Dickey apocalyptic vision of America’s future to my colleagues Maureen Mazzaoui took seriously his responsibilities as ensure that he is in great demand as a and Karl Shoemaker. I do hope the a trainer of professional historians. lecturer and conference participant. university will continue to support this He also developed a strong follow- A recent issue of the William & Mary rich legacy of teaching and scholar- ing among undergraduate students. Quarterly included a retrospective ship.” He is doing his part through the His courses on religious thought, the analysis of the impact of Salem establishment of a graduate fellowship influence of Greek political thought Possessed: The Social Origins of to support students studying medieval in the western tradition, and early Witchcraft (Cambridge, 1974), an history in future years and by funding modern political thought all drew influential book he coauthored with the purchase of research collections large enrollments. With his char- Stephen Nissenbaum. It was a great for UW Libraries. acteristic commitment and energy, opportunity to reevaluate the book Dickey often sat well past his already and to critique current trends. “It was Professor Laurence Dickey ample office hours to offer patient an extremely valuable exercise, and I By the time he joined the Depart- critiques or intellectual advice to his greatly benefited from the critical ment of History at the University of students. attention of my colleagues.” He has Wisconsin–Madison as an associate For more information on also enjoyed investigating new areas professor in 1989, Laurence Dickey William Courtenay and Laurence of research: Paul recently gave the had already gained recognition as Dickey, visit the History Department keynote talk for a conference on “The a prominent historian of European Web site: history.wisc.edu/home/ Amish in American Culture” and thought. He earned his doctor- courtenay_dickey.htm. contributed an essay to a volume in ate at the University of California, honor of the ninetieth birthday of Leonard Bernstein.

history.wisc.edu 11 Fuller In the summer of 1953, when linguistics from Columbia Univer- continued from page 5 our daughter Anne was eight months sity’s Teachers College. She taught starring an unknown Jack Lemmon. old, he encouraged me to go back for many years at Queens College, At CARE and in the theater I got to to Madison to finish my degree. and for two years in China. know a number of Hitler’s refugees Anne enjoyed being the center of She went to China first in 1980, and to learn from them of their war ­attention on the Memorial Union the same year her daughter Cordie experiences. Terrace, and I was happy finally to took part in the UW’s College Year In 1950, while campaigning for a finish my degree in history. in India program. Cordie has two reform Democrat in Greenwich Vil- MAs from UW–Madison: ­economics lage, I met Jeffrey Eastman Fuller, Joyce Fuller lives in New York City. (’85) and agricultural journalism who worked for the ACLU. We For many years her family lived in (’88). Joyce’s older daughter, Anne, is were married in 1951. For 15 years, a community built for the United working with the UN in Sudan. working at home on weekends, with Nations where she produced a com- Tell Us Your Story. a little help from me, he produced munity newspaper. She received an Submissions to “Finding Myself Civil Liberities, the ACLU’s monthly MA in teaching English as second in History” can be sent to newsletter. language, and an MED in applied [email protected]

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