Top presentations online
HIST 4046 (Nineteenth-Century British History) is certified as “communication-intensive” by LSU’s award-winning Communication Across the Curriculum program. Assignments in this course focus on two modes of communication: written and visual. We do extensive analysis of visual primary sources (paintings, cartoons, buildings, dishes, clothing, book illustrations) in class, to prepare the students for their big research project, called Visualizing History. Students learn that the “stuff” of Victorian Britain—its material culture—provides the historian with invaluable primary resources for exploring and explaining this society. For their Visualizing History project, they utilize a visual presentation technique (a Prezi) to describe, analyze, and explain the significance of one aspect of this visual culture. Here are the best submissions for the Spring 2023 semester:
Emme Clark: https://prezi.com/view/Oi5GowIHbj4k4dfJzNv4/
Ann Crabtree: https://prezi.com/view/FxnDS2xsNk0REpoFs9Qs/
Audrey Hanks: https://prezi.com/view/mE9VmW0pC4SvKcui91gv/
Sophie Terrell: https://prezi.com/view/7AJoGKxXkSTowoPk4ZSD/
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New Courses: Southern & Diplomatic History
HIS 4072: The New South (Tuesday/Thursday, 10:30-11:50 a.m.)
Part of the nation. A region apart. This course surveys the history of the United States South from the end of the Civil War to the 21st century. Topics to be addressed include race and segregation, agriculture and industrialization, politics and conservatism, activism and civil rights, art and popular culture, and shifting notions of “southernness” and southern identity across time. In addition to class lectures, students will work closely with a variety of primary source materials (including music and film) designed to bring the southern past to life.
Hist 4064: US Diplomatic History
(Tuesday/Thursday, 10:30-11:50 a.m.)
This course focuses on the history of U.S. foreign relations from the early twentieth century to the present day. While students will learn about the United States' diplomatic involvement and military engagement in the world, they will also examine American economic, social, and cultural relations with other nations. At the same time, the course will explore how people and events outside the United States influenced American history during these years. Finally, we will analyze key debates and controversies surrounding the United States' proper role in global affairs.
Prestigious award 
Boyd Prof. Suzanne Marchand has been announcedas among the 2022 recipients of the highly valued John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has sought since its inception to “further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions.” Prior-year Fellows include such distinguished names as Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Martha Graham, and Linus Pauling. Congratulations to Prof. Marchand on this signal honor!
Colloquium Presentations
Please consider joining us for the first of the year's talks in the History Colloquium series:
September 15 (FRIDAY), 3:30 pm, Himes 253: Prof. Nikolaus Overtoom, Washington State University, Pullman: "Patricide, Fratricide, and Betrayal: The Role of Parthia in the First War with Rome."
September 21 (THURSDAY) 4:30pm, Himes 241: Prof. Joshua Sellers, University of Texas (Law School), "Originalism and the Role of History in American Law."
Book News
Reformation in the Low Countries,1500-1620
By Prof. Christine Kooi
This accessible general history of the Reformation in the Netherlands traces the key developments in the process of reformation – both Protestant and Catholic – across the whole of the Low Countries during the sixteenth century. Synthesizing fifty years’ worth of scholarly literature, it focuses particularly on the political context of the era: how religious change took place against the integration and disintegration of the Habsburg composite state in the Netherlands. Special attention is given to the Reformation’s role in both fomenting and fueling the Revolt against the Habsburg regime in the later sixteenth century, as well as how it contributed to the formation of the region’s two successor states, the Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands. Reformation in the Low Countries, 1500-1620 is essential reading for scholars and students of early modern European history, bringing together specialized, contemporary research on the Low Countries in one volume for the first time since the 1950s. A Dutch translation will be published in the summer of 2023.
Graduates of Geaux Teach, the Major in History with a Concentration in Secondary Education, pose with program advisor Prof. Zevi Gutfreund (far right). For information on the Secondary Education history program: Geaux Teach