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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. — Join us!

Read: Molly Michelmore in The Washington Post - "Why the Income Tax is Worth Celebrating"
View: Schnepper on Huffpost Live discussion of the "War on Christmas"
Read: NYT Opinion piece "Yuletide's Outlaws" by Rachel Schnepper
Read: Roanoke Times Review of The Promise of Wilderness by Jay Turner, W&L '95, PhD Princeton, '04
Read: Professor Gildner's research was recently featured in the Sunday supplement of La Prensa, one of the major newspapers in La Paz, Bolivia.
Spring Term 2012: Freedom Ride: Blog
Read: Michelmore: GOP's policies about more than economics
Watch "China's Global Identities: The Conflicted Rising Power" by David Shambaugh (3/1/12)
Watch "The Accidental Suicide of the Roman Empire" by Michael Kulikowski (3/1/12)
Watch "Sue Keitt: Real Life Scarlett O'Hara" by Holt Merchant (3/23/12)

News

Isaac Webb Awarded Fulbright to Ukraine
Washington and Lee University senior Isaac Webb, of Portland, Maine, has received a Fulbright research/study grant to the Ukraine for his project "Disability and Invisibility: Human Rights for the Handicapped in Soviet Ukraine from Brezhnev to Gorbachev."
Stoler to Present Griffith Lecture at W&L
Mark Stoler, editor of the George C. Marshall Papers, will present the Robert S. Griffith '52 Lecture at Washington and Lee University on Tuesday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium of the Leyburn Library. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "George C. Marshall and the Creation of [...]
Goodspeed '92 Talks Naval Aviation History
Washington and Lee alumnus Hill Goodspeed '92 was featured in an interview on WALA-TV (FOX10TV) for Pensacola, Fla., and Mobile, Ala., earlier this month.
W&L Alum Paul Harrison '93 Takes Over Clayton State Men's Basketball
Washington and Lee alumnus Paul Harrison has been named head men's basketball coach at Clayton State University in Georgia.
W&L Observes Holocaust Remembrance Week, April 30-May 9
Holocaust Remembrance Week will be observed at Washington and Lee University with a talk by a Holocaust survivor and various other activities from Tuesday, April 30 through Thursday, May 9.

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Announcements

Richard J.A. Talbert to Give Lecture on the Peutinger Map
Hoyt Lecture in the Classics
Tuesday, April 3rd at 7 PM in Stackhouse Theatre, Elrod Commons, Dr. Richard J. A. Talbert (UNC Chapel Hill) will deliver the annual Hoyt Lecture in the Classics on "The Magnificent Peutinger Map: Roman Cartography at its Most Creative."
Rupke 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.
Michelmore 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.
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.
Michelmore 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.