History Department News and Research

“There is no silly sensationalism in this book, merely sound storytelling and measured judgments. The author writes of ‘that particular German approach to war-making in the first half of the 20th century—tactical ingenuity in the service of strategic vacuity,’ writes Max Hastings, book critic for The Sunday Times.

“The presence of U.S. troops in Mexico will severely and irreparably undermine [President of Mexico] Sheinbaum’s counter-narcotics policies, which are netting results. Crippling the Sheinbaum administration will give rise to an even bigger and stronger enemy south of the border,” writes Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

“As a person who has lived on three continents and traveled extensively through three more, and as someone who has thought deeply about the implications of gospel values for both church and world, Leo is well aware that all that he says and does will be examined and parsed for their repercussions,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, professor of history and political science.

Osamah Khalil, professor of history and expert on the modern Middle East, says it’s untrue that Obama or Biden “held a personal animus toward Israel, especially Biden. Indeed, both administrations oversaw expansions in U.S. military assistance and coordination with Israel.”

“Bavaria is a very agrarian place, even more so at that time,” says Robert Terrell, associate professor of history. Even today nearly half of Bavaria’s land remains devoted to agriculture, and every four years, the Bavarian Central Agricultural Fair coincides with Oktoberfest. 

“Unless the decision is followed by a renewed and robust peace negotiations that bring an end to Israel’s war in Gaza as well as the settlement and annexation policies in the occupied West Bank, recognition will be too little and far too late,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program.

Omar Cheta, assistant professor of history, has written How Commerce Became Legal: Merchants and Market Governance in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2025). The book explores Egypt’s adoption of a new infrastructure of commercial laws and institutions following the country’s opening to private capital in the 1840s. 

“Americans today may not regard luxury as inimical to republican virtue in the way that they did in 1840. But prolonged inflation or a recession could reawaken those attitudes. In that context, Trump’s tacky and risible affection for gilded moldings and glitzy ballrooms could become a serious political liability,” writes Mark Schmeller, associate professor of history.

Marquardt taught in the Maxwell History Department until his retirement, when he was granted emeritus status. He was an expert on German social history with a special interest in the history of German workers and catechisms, the texts that were used to instruct young Catholics in church doctrine. He passed away on July 10 at the age of 85.

Gladys McCormick, associate dean and professor of history, has written a new book, The Last Door: A History of Torture in Mexico's War against Subversives (University of California Press, 2025). The book explores how the Mexican government increasingly used torture to suppress dissent as guerrilla movements spread across Mexico in the 1970s. 

“This is not post-war planning. This is a continuation of Netanyahu's war,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program. “This is what experts like I and many others have warned about for 22 months All of this was about expanding, annexing Gaza and the West Bank and expelling Palestinians.”

Lee succeeds Devashish Mitra as chair of the Economics Department, while Takeda follows Susan Branson as chair of the History Department.

Brian Brege, Sarah Hamersma, Yüksel Sezgin and Ying Shi will hold the title for three years. 

In anticipation of America’s Semiquincentennial on July 4, 2026, Carol Faulkner, senior associate dean and professor of history professor, shares her insights on the historical themes of the document, our evolving understanding of that period of U.S. history and what she is looking forward to in this anniversary year of commemorations.