RSS 1.0Department of History
Welcome to the Department of History digital archives. History has been an integral part of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum at Vanderbilt since the University was founded, in 1873. The first undergraduate students of the discipline immersed themselves in subjects as various as the Roman Empire, English constitutional history, the history of religion (including Islam), political economy, and contemporary American politics. Graduate study came early—in the 1880s—to Vanderbilt. Taught in weekly seminars, a new instructional form, students were expected to master the standard texts—in Ancient history and in legal history, for example—while the more advanced among them engaged in innovative research on such issues as the Civil War, local government in the South and Southwest, and the tariff, Henry George and socialism. Vanderbilt’s first PhD in history was awarded in 1899, one of only three awarded in the South before 1900. Notably, five of Vanderbilt’s first twenty-five PhD recipients were women. To access undergraduate honors research go to the Undergraduate Honors Research - History Department collection.
| Department Location: | 227 Benson Hall |
| Mailing Address: | Department of
Department of History Vanderbilt University PMB 351802 2301 Vanderbilt Place Nashville, TN 37235-1802 Building: Benson Hall, Room 227 |
| Phone: | 615-322-2575 |
| Fax: | 615-343-6002 |
| Email: | History@vanderbilt.edu |
| Website: | Department of History |
Collections in this community
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Vanderbilt Historical Review
Digital archive collection of the Vanderbilt Historical Review, an undergraduate research journal in History.
Recent Submissions
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)This paper examines the structural changes in East German institutions that occurred in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the years following German Reunification and how they represented a western "takeover" ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)This research examines the reaction of students at Vanderbilt University to the Vietnam War during Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency. Vanderbilt's student-run newspaper The Vanderbilt Hustler provides insight into the opinions ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)US-Haitian relations had a rough beginning, as the possible American recognition of Haiti became a fixed point of tension between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans in domestic and foreign policy from 1797 to 1806. ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)A historiographical analysis of thematic mapping in turn-of-the-century Chicago reveals the role of cartography as a highly politicized method for sorting and labeling urban populations. Progressive Era reformers and ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)China today is a rising superpower and a major challenger to American hegemony. The industrialization and modernization that other nations achieved in centuries, China has compressed to a few decades. Indeed, all too often, ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)The replacement of trolley systems by buses, a process which fundamentally reshaped America's urban landscape, has long been viewed as inevitable. However, in this paper, I look beyond arguments of financial necessity to ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)Allen W. Dulles spent his tenure as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) entrenched in secret power struggles that would ensure his ultimate power over the foreign and domestic affairs for the United States. Throughout ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)In 1922, Congress passed the Cable Act, which allowed women who married foreigners eligible for naturalization to retain their U.S. citizenship. However, women who married aliens racially excluded from the naturalization ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)For decades, tensions flared between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with little recognition or action on the part of American presidents. Even in the face of human rights atrocities and political oppression, ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)The elemental makeup and design of the Russian futurist anti-opera play, Victory Over the Sun, set an artistic precedence during the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. The Russian Avant-Garde movement, which played ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)When Nazi leadership ultimately embraced the notion of hosting the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, the decision entailed an undertaking to which an inherently militaristic society would seem ill-suited: orchestrating ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)While lauded, at first glance, for being a wholeheartedly feminist and progressive television show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show struck a balance between progressive second-wave feminism and traditional family values that ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)The early 20th century is portrayed as the era of American isolationism, and the United States' official policy of neutrality for most of World War I is frequently attributed to the country's economic interests and substantial ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)In his book, Nationalism and African Intellectuals, Toyin Falola poses the fundamental question of "How can Africa uplift itself?" in the wake of decolonization. This question of how Africa should proceed from colonization ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)This paper uses the works of John Osborne, Azouz Begag, and Peter Maass to deconstruct the generalization that Europeans "developed within the shadow of the past." The British dramatist, French-Algerian autobiographer, and ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)For years, the Vanderbilt University Holocaust Lecture Series has brought in guest speakers and academic scholars to give presentations on the history of the Holocaust. Begun in 1967 under the direction of Beverly Asbury, ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese turned to Western models to modernize their government. Specifically, they hired former American Commissioner of Agriculture Horace Capron to advise the colonization of Hokkaido. ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)John F. Kennedy maintains a reputation in American memory with respect to civil rights that he does not deserve. He campaigned for presidency advocating the end of racial discrimination, but once he took office his interests ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)Medieval representations of death can illuminate how individuals conceptualised the experience. The poem "A Disputacione Betwyx The Body and Wormes" is a productive lens through which to consider contemporary notions of ...
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(Vanderbilt University, Department of History, 2016)The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) offers an account of the Mandate of Palestine strikingly divergent from the rest of British society. Through their ideology, the CPGB constructed a narrative of Palestinian issues ...