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History Department

History examines the past through various lenses -- social, political and intellectual; textual and material -- enriching us as individuals and preparing us to engage the complexities and ambiguities of the contemporary world.  We explore the regions of the world via period, issue, and context.

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News

  • Kelli Jarrell, Washington and Lee Class of 2012Jarrell, Deyarmin Generals of the Month for January
    Washington and Lee University students Kelli Jarrell and Stephen Deyarmin will be recognized at the Generals of the Month presentation on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at noon in the Marketplace in Elrod Commons. Jarrell, a senior from Dry Creek, W.Va., is a biochemistry (pre-med) major with a minor in poverty and human capability studies. She is [...]
  • Roger Jeans, Otey Professor Emeritus of East Asian History at Washington and Lee UniversityJapan's NHK-TV Interviews Professor Emeritus Jeans
    On Pearl Harbor Day in Japan (Dec. 8 because of the international dateline), the Japanese equivalent of PBS will air a program that features an interview with Roger B. Jeans, the Otey Professor Emeritus of East Asian History at Washington and Lee. A Japanese TV crew from NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corp., came to Lexington [...]
  • Garrett Fagan, Penn State UniversityGarrett Fagan to Discuss Infamous Roman Games in W&L Lecture
    Garrett G. Fagan, associate professor of classics, history and ancient Mediterranean studies at The Pennsylvania State University, will give a lecture at Washington and Lee University on Monday, Oct. 31, at 6:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium in Leyburn Library. The title of the talk, which is free and open to the public, is “Watching the [...]
  • Ted DeLaney, Washington and Lee University Professor of HistoryTed DeLaney Named St. George Tucker Society President
    Ted DeLaney, the Harry E. and Mary Jayne W. Redenbaugh Term Professor of History and head of the history department at Washington and Lee, has been elected to a two-year term as president of the St. George Tucker Society, an interdisciplinary organization of southern specialists at was founded in 1992 by the most important living historian [...]
  • Jenks Wilson, Washington and Lee University Class of 2012Mapping the Civil War with W&L History Student
    When an alumnus first asked him to spend part of his summer immersed in Civil War maps, Washington and Lee University senior Jenks Wilson wasn't sure what to expect. A senior with a double major in history and philosophy from Charleston, S.C., Wilson said his historical interests initially lay in the antebellum period. He did [...]
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Announcements

  • @AlternateTextRupke Named Johnson Professor
    In the College, and Member of the Department of History
    July 11, 2011 -- Washington and Lee University has appointed Nicolaas A. Rupke, currently of the University of Göttingen, Germany, to the Johnson Professorship in the College, where he will focus his teaching and scholarship on the intersections of leadership and the history of ideas.
  • @AlternateTextMichelmore in the Christian Science Monitor
    "Painful truth of debt crisis: We must raise taxes, even on the middle class"
    June 7, 2011 -- For 75 years, the federal government has used tax benefits and other indirect assistance to underwrite a giant middle-class welfare state. Now it’s time for Americans to admit the truth. If we want all the 'stuff' the federal government provides for us, we’re going to have to pay for it.
  • @AlternateTextHistory Major Isaac Webb Receives
    U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship
    Webb is a double-major in History and Russian Area Studies and hopes to approach fluency in the language this summer. CLS is part of a wider U.S. government effort to dramatically expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical-need languages.
  • History Should Be a Good Story
    Department Head Ted DeLaney reflects on the National Assessment of Educational Progress
    "...to weigh one event against another, and decide that there is this body of facts that [U.S. schoolchildren] have to be able to recite on a moment's notice, seems to me to defeat the purpose. It seems more important to turn people on to history than it is to ensure they know a canon of facts."
  • The Marshall Mission to China: 1945-1947
    Edited by Professor Emeritus, Roger B. Jeans
    This book breaks new ground in our understanding of a pivotal period in the history of American foreign policy, the early Cold War, and the struggle for dominance in China between the Nationalists and Communists. The famous Marshall Mission to China has been the focus of intense scrutiny ever since General George C. Marshall returned home in January 1947 and full-scale civil war consumed China. Yet until recently, there was little new to add to the story of the failure to avert war between the Chinese Nationalists, under Chiang Kai-shek, and the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong. Drawing on a newly discovered insider's account, Roger Jeans makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of Marshall's failed mediation effort and the roles played by key Chinese figures.
  • @AlternateTextMichelmore discussing her new book
    in an appearance on WMRA's program, Virginia Insight
    Molly Michelmore, assistant professor of history at Washington and Lee University, discussed her ongoing research into the politicization of federal tax and welfare policies between 1935 and 1980 in an appearance on WMRA's program, Virginia Insight, on Monday, May 2, 2011.

Newcomb Hall Restoration:

We've moved in! Come visit any time. It's a magnificent restoration / transformation.