History Department News and Research

Why write a book that appears to be calling for greater self-focus, for the cultivation of more "inwardness," when we appear to have a surfeit of damaging self-centered introspection as it is? Because, Professor of History Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn says in her new book, "Ars Vitae," today’s self-obsession entails "a false kind of inwardness. It’s a sham, It’s not the real thing."

"The Mexican attorney general may follow through on the pretense of investigating Cienfuegos, but nothing will come of it because he is untouchable," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"'Britain at Bay'...might be the single best examination of British politics, society and strategy in these four years that has ever been written," said reviewer Paul Kennedy about Associate Professor of History Alan Allport's book.

"All in all, freeing Cienfuegos without any charges or penalties showcases that his arrest was a complete debacle for both the DEA and DOJ [Department of Justice]," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"Following through on prosecuting Cienfuegos would have compromised intelligence gathering and joint military operations for years to come, which is part of the reason why the original arrest was so scandalous," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

"She writes in a way that makes her readers better thinkers, more reflective and self-aware, and she does so by showing the development of her own thinking—who her influences are, the sources from which she draws her wisdom, and how philosophy informs her understanding of herself, the culture, and the world in which she lives," reads a review of Professor Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn's book, "Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living."

Writer and literary scholar Ruth Klüger died October 5, 2020. "She reminds us that making a more humane and tolerant world requires accountability and unmovable courage in criticism," writes Robert Terrell, assistant professor of history.

Professor Emeritus David Bennett expresses concern that Americans view President Trump as a president who has "taken a pickax to the tent poles of democratic institutions." According to Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science, one of the ways the President's strategy has been ineffective "is telling people not to be worried about something that is in fact worrisome."

If Biden wins the presidential election, "it's a return back to normalcy, the status quo, the way in which we knew politics to work across the border," says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. 

Alan Allport, associate professor of history, was interviewed for a two-part feature on History Extra, the BBC's History podcast, about his forthcoming book "Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941" (Penguin Random House, November 2020).