Papradno, Slovakia. ,
Education
The University of Michigan, 1977-88.
Dissertation: Rural Politics and Sugar: A Comparative Study of the National Liberal Party in Hannover and Prussian Saxony, 1871-1914.
Duke University, 1976-77.
Thesis: Anglo-Saxon Resistance to the Norman Conquest, 1066-1076.
The University of Toledo, 1972-76.
Thesis: John of Salisbury as Historian.
Academic Employment
Miami University
Assistant Professor, 1992-97; Associate Professor, 1997-2024; Professor Emeritus, 2025.
The Ohio State University
Instructor, 1990-92.
The University of Toledo
Part-time Assistant Professor, 1988-1990.
Madonna College
Instructor, 1984-85.
The University of Michigan
Teaching and Research Assistant, 1977-83.
Scholarship
Books
The Stab-in-the-Back Myth and the Fall of the Weimar Republic. A History in Documents and Visual Sources (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2016).
Peasants and Jews: Anti-Semitism and Rural Politics in Northwest Germany, 1893-1933. Forthcoming Fall 2026 from Bloomsbury Press. http://www.peasantsandjews.org
Elections in Northern Niedersachsen. A Database and Historical GIS. A georeferenced map of polling and census places in northwest Germany (+3000 hours/work), populated with local election results from 14 national elections between 1893 and 1933 (+500K data points) and data for 761 census places from 5 national censes plus other social/economic data (+2000 hours/work) collected from 42 archives and libraries in Germany, the US, the UK and Israel. To be archived at either Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan or the German Social Science Infrastructure Service (GESIS) at the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim.
Chapters and Articles
“Peasants and Politics: How GIS Offers New Insights into the German Countryside,” Routledge Handbook of Spatial History, eds. Ian Gregory, Don DeBats and Don Lafreniere, January 2018. Pp. 478-501.
“Hannover,” Varieties of Democracy: Global Standards, Local Knowledge, https://www.v-dem.net/en/. University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
“Oldenburg,” Varieties of Democracy: Global Standards, Local Knowledge, https://www.v-dem.net/en/. University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
"Computer-Assisted Analysis and Plotting of Village Returns in German National Elections, 1893-1912," Journal of the American Association for History and Computing, 4/1(2001).
“State Policy and Differential Development in the German Sugar Industry, 1800-1871,” Competing for the Sugar Bowl, Eds. Roger Munting and Tomas Szmrecsanyi, (St. Katherinen: Scripta Mercaturae Verlag, 2000), pp. 16-38.
“Beyond the 'National Consensus': Recent Research on the Origins and Trajectory of Germany's Industrial Revolution,” The Industrial Revolution in Comparative Perspective, ed. Christine Rider, (Homestead: Krieger Press, 2000), pp. 147-160.
“German States and the Industrial Revolution, 1800-1850,” Essays in Economic and Business History, 15(1997): 11-27.
“Crisis or Transformation? Confronting the Myth of Agricultural Depression in Wilhelmine Germany,” Essays in Economic and Business History, 14(1996): 91-103.
“Agrarian Politics in Wilhelmine Germany: Diederich Hahn and the Agrarian League,” in Between Reform, Reaction, and Resistance. Studies in the History of German Conservatism from 1789 to the Present, Eds. Larry Eugene Jones and James Retallack, (Providence: Berg Press, 1993), pp. 229-260.
“Sugar Barons and Bureaucrats: Unraveling the Relationship between Economic Interest and Government in Modern Germany, 1799-1945,” Business and Economic History, 22(1992): 336-342.
“The German Peasant League and the Limits of Rural Liberalism in Wilhelmine Germany,” Central European History, 24(1991): 147-175.
“What Was the German Sugar Cartel? An Analysis of Interest Group Representation and Industrial Organization,” Essays in Economic and Business History, 8(1990): 355-67.
“The Brussels Convention of 1902: Reevaluating the Roles of State and Industry in Wilhelmine Germany,” Essays in Economic and Business History, 7(1989): 90-101.
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Reviews
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Review of Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998) in The Historian, 62/2(2000): 451.
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Review of Hans Pohl (ed.), Competition and Cooperation of Enterprises on National and International Markets (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Press, 1997) in the Economic History Review, 52(1999): 203-204.
Review of Robert Spaulding, Ostpolitik and Osthandel. German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer (Providence: Berghahn Press, 1997), in German Studies Review, 22(1999): 157-158.
Review of W.O. Henderson, The German Colonial Empire 1884-1919 (London: Frank Cass, 1993), in The Historian, 58(1996): 236-237.
Review of Volker Berghahn, Imperial Germany, 1871-1914: economy, society, culture and politics (Providence: Berghahn Books, 1994), in The Historian, 58(1996): 101-102.
Review of Helmut Heiber, The Weimar Republic (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), in The Historian, 57(1995): 637-638.
Review of Mikael Hård, Machines are Frozen Spirit. The Scientification of Refrigeration and Brewing in the 19th Century - A Weberian Analysis (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 1994), in Central European History, 27(1994).
Review of W.R. Lee, ed., Essays on German Economic and Business History (London: Routledge, 1992) in German Studies Review, 17(1994): 402.
Review of Duncan Smith, Walls and Mirrors. Western Representations of Really Existing German Socialism in the German Democratic Republic, (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988), in German Studies Review, 12(1989): 224-225.
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Research Guides
“Deutscher Bauernbund" (p. 264), "Diedrich Hahn" (p. 287), "Verein deutscher Studenten" (p. 267), "Werner Sombart" (p. 670), "Tivoli Program," (p. 708), and "Hermann Wagener," (p. 749) in The Encyclopedia of Antisemitism, Anti-Jewish Prejudice and Persecution, ed. Richard S. Levy, (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2005).
“Count Alfred von Schlieffen” (volume 3, pp. 967-8) and “Battle of the Marne” (volume 4, p. 1381) in Magill's Guide to Military History, (Pasadena: Salem Press, 2001).
“The Hindenburg Plan, 1916,” Great Events from History: Business and Commerce, (Pasadena: Salem Press, 1994), pp. 293-296.
Abstracts of articles from Geschichte und Gesellschaft and German Studies Review for Historical Abstracts, Santa Barbara: ABC Clio, 1989-1993.
“The German Democratic Republic,” Read More About It, (Ann Arbor: Pierian Press, 1989), pp. 135-139.
“Helmut Schmidt,” The Book of Days 1988, (Ann Arbor: Pierian Press, 1988), pp. 368-371.
Editorial assistance
Pre-publication reviewer of Katrin Möbius and Sascha Möbius, Prussian Army Soldiers and the Seven Years' War: The Psychology of Honour, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.
Pre-publication reviewer of "Small farmers, their Association and the transformation of the Australian sugar industry" for publication in Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History, 2019.
Pre-publication reviewer of "'Village Study’ of 1952 to 2015: A meta-analysis of a longitudinal research project in Germany" for the Journal of Rural Studies, 2019.
Pre-revision Editor, Donald Kagan, et al., The Western Heritage, Prentice-Hall, 2016.
Pre-publication reviewer of The Global Influenza Pandemic, 1918-1919: A Brief History with Documents for Bedford/St. Martin, 2010.
Pre-publication reviewer of Auschwitz and the Holocaust, for Oxford University Press. 2007.
Pre-publication reviewer Europe: A Continent and its People, 1350 to the Present, for Longman Publishers. 2007.
Pre-publication reviewer of two articles for the Journal of Military History, 2006.
Pre-publication Reviewer, Europe since 1945, Talbott and Winks, Oxford University Press, 2002.
Pre-publication Reviewer, The West: Encounters and Transformations, Lavack, Muir, Maas, and Veldman, Longman Press, 2002.
Pre-revision Editor, A History of Western Society, McKay, Hill, and Buckler, Houghton-Miflin Publishing, 2000.
Associate Editor, Essays in Economic and Business History, volumes XII-XV, (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1995-1998).
Conference Papers and Presentations
“Theodor Tantzen and the Limits of Progressive Rural Policy in Northwest Germany.” Paper accepted for presentation at the April 2025 meeting of the European Rural History Organization in Leiden, the Netherlands.
“What can we discern about the economic determination of politics in Imperial and Weimar Germany. A comparative study of adjacent constituencies.” Paper to be presented at the November 2024 meeting of the Social Science History Association meeting in Toronto, Canada.
“Theodor Tantzen and the Limits of Progressive Rural Policy in Northwest Germany.” Paper accepted for presentation at the April 2022 meeting of the European Rural History Organization in Gothenburg, Sweden. I had to cancel my attendance due to ill health.
“Whose Interest, Whose Politics. The Conflict over Rural Representation in Germany, 1893-1933.” Paper presented at the June 2021 meeting of the European Rural History Organization in Uppsala, Sweden.
“Rural Politics and Society: Representing and Representation in Rural Society.” Chaired and commented on three sessions at the European Rural History Organization meeting June 2021in Uppsala, Sweden.
“Locating Prejudice: The Geography of Jew-Hatred in Germany, 1893-1933” to virtual meeting of the European Social Science History Association, April 2021. For this conference I also created four sessions with 16 presenters.
“All Politics is Local: Economic crisis and the changing dynamics of village politics in Weimar Germany, 1918-1933.” Paper presented at the November 2021 conference of the Social Science History Association conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“Locating Antisemitism in the Northwest German Countryside, 1893-1933.” Paper
presented at the November 2019 conference of the Social Science History Association in Chicago, Illinois.
“The Periphery as Leading Actor: Politics, Class and Economic Interest in the Northwest German countryside, 1918-1933.” paper presented at the European Rural History Organization in Leuven, Belgium, September 2017.
“Peasant Proprietors and Local Patriotism in East Friesland.” Paper accepted for presentation at the Agricultural History Association meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 2017.
“Peasants and Politics: How GIS Offers New Insights into the German Countryside,” presented to the Seminar für Neuere Geschichte at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, April 2016.
Roundtable organizer and discussant on Robert Sweeny, Why We Chose to Industrialize: Montreal 1809-1831 at the 2016 conference of the Social Science History Association in Chicago, Illinois. Sweeny’s book won the Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize in History.
“Landscapes and Views of the Past.” Comment delivered November 2014 at the Social Science History Association conference in Toronto, Ontario.
"The Political Sociology of North German Moor and Fehn Communities." Paper presented at the April 2014 conference of the European Social Science History Association in Vienna, Austria.
“Mapping Religion, the Digital Atlas of American Religion.” Panel chaired at the November 2013 conference of the Social Science History Association in Chicago, Illinois.
“Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben. Peasant Protest in Northwest Germany, 1927-1930." Paper presented in August 2013 at the European Rural History Association conference in Berne, Switzerland.
"Loß von Preußen: A Spatial and Statistical Analysis of the 1924 Referendum on Hanoverian Independence." Paper presented in November 2012 at the Social Science History Association conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
“Geographies of Frontier Capitalism.” Panel chaired and comment delivered at the November 2012 conference of the Social Science History Association in Vancouver, British Columbia.
“Pigs and Protest: The Crisis of Swine Husbandry and the Electoral Success of anti-Semitic Political Parties in Northwest Germany, 1924-1930.” Paper presented in April 2012 at the European Social Science History Association conference in Glasgow, UK.
“’Is Hitler Racist Enough?’ Competition among the völkisch parties in Northwest Germany.” Paper to be presented in November 2011 at the Social Science History Association conference in Boston, Massachusetts.
“New Departures in Political Geography: What can be learned from GIS?” Delivered in November 2011 at the Social Science History Association conference in Boston, MA
“Party Politics and State Power: the Rise and Fall of Social Democracy in the northwest German countryside, 1890-1933.” Paper presented in September 2010 at the Social Science History Association conference in Chicago, Illinois.
“The Landarbeiterbewegung and Reaction in Northwest Germany, 1918-1924.” Paper presented in April 2010 at the conference of the European Social Science History Association in Ghent, Belgium.
“Guardians of Tradition or Agents of Modernity: Sources of National Socialist Appeal in Rural Northwest Germany.” Paper presented in November 2009 at the Social Science History Association conference in Long Beach, California.
“Geographies of Place.” Comment delivered in November 2009 at the Social Science History Association conference in Long Beach, California.
“Remaking of Rural Life.” Comment delivered in November 2009 at the Social Science History Association conference in Long Beach, California.
“Triumph on the Periphery: Political Anti-Semitism in Rural Northern Germany.” Paper presented in December 2008 at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in Washington, D.C.
“Agrarians into Nazis? The Evidence from the North German Marschlands.” Paper prepared for presentation in March 2008 at the conference of the European Social Science History Association in Lisbon, Portugal.
“The Growth Dynamics of Political Anti-Semitism in the North German Countryside.” Paper presented in December 2007 at the Lessons & Legacies Conference at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.
“The Landvolkbewegung and the disintegration of the German Nationalist/Agrarian block in 1928. What historical GIS shows.” Paper presented in November 2007 at the Social Science History Association meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
“The Power of ‘Culture’: Culture and the Social Sciences in Twentieth Century America.” Comment delivered in November 2007 at the Social Science History Association meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
“Reconceptualizing Rural History” Comment delivered at the Social Science History Association meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2006.
“Agrarianism in the North German Marschlands: a comparative study of local political cultures in East Friesland, Oldenburg, and Stade.” Paper presented in March 2006 at the conference of the European Social Science History Association in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
“Peasants and Jews in Germany, 1893-1912.” Paper presented in December 2005 at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in Washington, DC.
“The Rise and Fall of Agrarian Politics in East Fresia, 1890-1903.” Paper presented in November 2005 at the Social Science History Association conference in Portland, Oregon.
“Mapping Soil Structures, Village Types and Market Patterns in East Friesland for the Second Half of the 19th Century” Paper presented in November 2004 at the Social Science History Association conference in Chicago, Illinois.
“The Imperial German Elections Atlas.” Presented to the Congress of Cultural Atlases: The Human Record, May 2004, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.
“Local dimensions of the ‘crisis of liberalism’ in East Fresia as reflected in the German elections of 1881 and 1884.” Paper presented in March 2004 at the conference of the European Social Science History Association in Berlin, Germany.
“Using GIS to analyze urban patterns in the past.” Comment delivered in March 2004 at the conference of the European Social Science History Association in Berlin, Germany.
“Transatlantic Perspectives on German Immigrant Communities and Culture.” Session chair. Comment delivered in November 2004 at the Social Science History Association conference in Chicago, Illinois.
“German Agrarianism and the Creation of an anti-Socialist Coalition in the 1890s.” Paper presented in November 2003 at the Social Science History Association conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Sophisticates or Neophytes: Charting the Campaign Behavior of Candidates in Imperial Germany Using Historical GIS.” Paper presented in August 2003 at the conference of the Association for History and Computing in Tromsø, Norway.
“Creating a Digital Electoral Atlas for the Prussian Province of Hanover.” Paper presented in March 2002 at the conference of the European Social Science History in The Hague, Netherlands.
“An exposition of the social and economic bases of rural radicalism in fin-de-siècle Germany.” Paper presented in August 2001 at the congress of the Association for History and Computing in Poznan, Poland.
“Landed Wealth and Rural Indebtedness as Factors In The Upsurge Of German Agrarianism: Evidence From The Administrative District Of Stade.” Poster session presented in November 2001 at the Social Science History Association meeting in Chicago.
“Computer-Assisted Analysis and Plotting of Village Returns in German National Elections, 1893-1912.” Paper delivered at the 2001 meeting of the American Association for History and Computing in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“Scientific Progress and Traditional Identity: Farmers and Brewers in 19th Century Germany.” Comment delivered at the 2000 meeting of the German Studies Association in Houston, Texas.
“Workers and Politics and 20th Century Europe.” Comment delivered at the 2000 meeting of the Ohio Academy of History in Westerville, Ohio.
“Defining Weber's ‘new political man’. Diederich Hahn and the Transformation of Imperial German Politics.” Paper delivered at the Fall 1999 meeting of the Social Science History Association in Fort Worth, Texas.
“The Role of Sugar Production in the 'Agrarian Crisis' of the 1890s.” Paper delivered at the First Conference on German Cliometrics in Fall 1999 in Toronto, Ontario.
“Poverty, Peasants, and Popery: Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Economic Culture.” Presented at the 1998 meeting of the Economic and Business Historical Society, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“Agrarianism in the Villages. What the Electoral Record Shows.” Paper delivered at the 1998 meeting of the German Studies Association in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“State Policy and Differential Development in the German Sugar Industry, 1800-1871.” Paper delivered at the 1998 congress of the International Economic History Association in Madrid, Spain.
“Einbahnstraße zum Faschismus? Continuity in German Agrarian Organization and Ideology, 1871-1933.” Paper prepared for delivery at the 1996 meeting of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
“The State and the Industrial Revolution in Germany.” Paper delivered at the 1996 meeting of the Economic and Business Historical Society in Savannah, Georgia.
“Immer wi(e)der Caprivi: The Utility of Crisis in German Agrarian Politics.” Paper delivered at the 1995 meeting of the Southern Historical Association in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“Defining Jews Out: Diederich Hahn and the Evolution of German Agrarromantik.” Paper delivered at the 1995 meeting of the German Studies Association in Chicago, Illinois.
“Confronting the Jewish, Woman and Slavic Questions in the Nineteenth Century.” Comment delivered at the 1995 meeting of the German Studies Association in Chicago, Illinois.
“Was there an Agrarian Crisis in Wilhelmine Germany?” Paper delivered at the 1995 meeting of the Economic and Business Historical Society in Boulder, Colorado.
“German and French Companies in the 20th Century.” Comment delivered at the 1994 meeting of the Business History Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia.
“What Sort of Anti-Semite? Diederich Hahn and the Articulation of Political Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany.” Paper delivered at the 1995 meeting of the Ohio Academy of History in Westerville, Ohio.
“Scheming Junkers and Docile Peasants? Reassessing the Character and Function of the Bund der Landwirte.” Paper delivered at the 1993 meeting of the German Studies Association in Washington, DC.
“An End to Comity: Sugar and the Worsening of German-American Relations, 1880-1910.” Delivered at the 1993 meeting of the Ohio Academy of History in Springfield, Ohio.
“Was Germany Blockaded into Submission? Reexamining the Nutritional Aspects of the Allied Blockade of Germany, 1914-1918.” Paper delivered at the 1992 meeting of the Ohio Academy of History in Dayton, Ohio.
“Sugar Barons and Bureaucrats: Unraveling the Relationship between Economic Interest and Government in Modern Germany, 1799-1945.” Paper delivered at the 1992 Business History Conference in Pasadena, California.
“Politics in the German Empire: The Problematic Authoritarian Legacy.” Comment delivered at the 1991 meeting of the German Studies Association in Los Angeles, California.
“Nutrition and Nationhood: Control of German Sugar Policy under the Reparations Regime.” Paper delivered at the 1991 meeting of the Southern Historical Association in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Modernizers or Mystics? Nazi Food Policy and Administration in the Second World War.” Paper delivered at the 1991 Duquesne History Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“Nutritional Policy during World War II in Light of National Socialist Agrarian Ideology.” Paper delivered at the 1991 meeting of the Ohio Academy of History in Columbus, Ohio.
“Diederich Hahn, the Agrarian League and the Politics of Radical Agrarianism, 1893-1918.” Paper delivered at the 1990 meeting of the German Studies Association in Buffalo, New York.
“Illusions on the Eve of the Great War: Preparations for the Cataclysm, 1912-1918.” Comment delivered at 1990 meeting of the American Historical Association meeting in New York, New York.
“Liberals and Sugar. A Study in Interest Group Representation.” Paper delivered at the 1989 meeting of the German Studies Association conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“What was the German Sugar Cartel? An Analysis of Interest Group Representation and Industrial Organization.” Paper delivered at the 1989 meeting of the Economic and Business Historical Society meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Economic Interest Groups and the Parameters of Trade Diplomacy in Wilhelmine Germany: the Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902.” Paper delivered at the 1988 meeting of the Economic and Business Historical Society meeting in Toronto, Ontario.
“The German Peasant League and National Liberal Revival.” Paper delivered at the 1987 meeting of the German Studies conference in St. Louis, Missouri.
Public presentations
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“The Versailles System and the End of World War I to the Institute for Learning in Retirement series in Oxford. October, 2019.
“The Great Destruction,” Public lecture presented at the Butler County Historical Museum program, “Over There, Over Here III.” April 2018.
“Butler County to the Front,” Public lecture presented at the Butler County Historical Museum program, “Over There, Over Here II.” April 2018.
“The Road to War” the inaugural lecture, "The Road to War", Presented as part of the Butler County Historical Society's exhibition, "Over There, over Here".
"Vienna, Cradle of Modernity." Public lecture presented at Miami University Hamilton’s Egghead Café series, May 2010.
"Loyal to the End: Ludwig Alpers and the Monarchist Opposition to National Socialism." Public lecture presented at Miami University Hamilton’s Egghead Café series, April 2010.
"Liberals into Nazis." Public lecture presented at Miami University Hamilton’s Egghead Café series, March 2010.
"America to the Rescue: The Dawes Plan and the End of German Hyperinflation." Public lecture presented at Miami University Hamilton’s Egghead Café series, May 2009.
"The Coming Hyperinflation? Lessons from Germany in the 1920s." Public lecture presented at Miami University Hamilton’s Egghead Café series, November 2009.
"Liberals into Anti-Semites." Public lecture presented at Miami University as part of Holocaust Awareness Week 2009.
"Adolf Hitler in Myth and Reality." Public lecture presented as part of the Miami University Hamilton Colligan History Project lecture series, April 2006.
“A Troublesome Rooster: Diederich Hahn and the Transformation of German Politics before the First World War.” Paper delivered in October 1997 as part of the Miami University - Hamilton faculty research seminar.
“From Idea to Reality: National Socialist Racial Ideology and the Holocaust.” Public lecture series delivered in March 1997 at the Miami University Dolibois European Center, Luxembourg.
“Germany's Peculiar Industrialization: Economic Aspects of the deutsche Sonderweg.” Paper delivered August, 1995 to the Seminar for Economic History, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität, Munich, Germany.
“Confronting the Myth of Agrarian Crisis in Wilhelmine Germany.” Article-in-progress presented to the History Department, Miami University, April, 1994.
“Defending the Socialist Fatherland: Origin and Utility of the Nationale Volksarmee.” Lecture delivered April 1986 at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.
“Landwirtschaft und politische Gesellschaft im deutschen Kaiserreich.” Paper delivered March 1985 at Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle, German Democratic Republic.
“Der Bund der Landwirte und ländliche Liberalismus in der Provinz Hannover.” Paper delivered March 1983 at the Universität Hannover, Hanover, Federal Republic of Germany.
Grants to support research
Miami University Hamilton Research Fund Grants, 2008, 2011.
Miami University Summer Research Appointment, 1997.
Miami University Committee for Faculty Research Grant, 1996.
Miami University Hamilton Research Grants, 1992-1995.
National Endowment for the Humanities Travel to Collections Grant - 1990.
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Fellowship - Bonn, Germany, 1986-87.
University of Michigan Fellowship - 1984-86.
IREX Fellowship - Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle, GDR, 1985.
DAAD Fellowship - Universität Hannover, Hanover, Germany, 1983-84.
DAAD Summer Grant - University of California, Berkeley, 1980.
Current Professional Memberships
Social Science History Association, since 2002.
European Social Science History Association, since 2002.
European Rural History Organization, since 2010.
Teaching
Courses taught at Miami University
Survey courses: Western Civilization to 1500, Western Civilization since 1500 (in traditional, hybrid, and online formats), World Civilization to 1500 (online format).
Advanced undergraduate: Seminar in Historical Inquiry; History and Numbers; The Great War: World War I in Europe; Hitler’s War: World War II in Europe; The Age of Revolutions: Europe 1750-1850; Industry and Empire: Europe 1850-1914; Age of Dictators: Europe 1914-1945; The Reconstruction of Europe since 1945; The Nuremberg Trials and their Legacy; The Holocaust; The Age of Bismarck; The Rise and Fall of Hitler.
Independent studies: Imperial Germany; Nazi Germany; Prussian History; the Origins of the First World War; the Holocaust; Anti-Semitism and Gender in Imperial Germany; Social and Cultural Aspects of the Industrial Revolution; German Industrialization and Militarism; Contemporary Europe; Historical Paris; Technological Innovations and the Course of War, 1914-1918.
Miami University Dolibois European Center: The Historical Foundations of the Social Sciences: The Legacy of the Enlightenment; The Historical Foundations of the Social Sciences: The Impact of the French and Industrial Revolutions; Age of Dictators: Europe 1914-1945.
Study Abroad workshops: Vienna and Munich: Cradles of Fascism; Berlin: Topography of Terror; Vienna: Cradle of Modernity.
Honors seminars: Tale of Two Cities: Fin de siècle Paris and Vienna; War and Society in Twentieth Century Europe.
Senior Capstones: The Industrial Revolution in Fiction; The Holocaust and Genocide in Modern History.
Graduate workshops: A Call to Freedom, 1492-1775; Forging Freedom, 1775-1787; Following Freedom's Path, 1788-1836; Beacon of Liberty: E Pluribus Unum; American Memory in Ohio.
Graduate Readings: German History; the Origins of the First World War; 19th Century Europe.
Graduate Colloquium: The Industrial Revolution.
Departmental honors theses:
Christian Hamm, “Bismarck, Moltke, and the Wars of Unification; Conscious Practitioners or Coincidental Historical Embodiment of Clausewitzian Theory.”
Jon Seaton, “National Socialist State Structures.”
Mark Hamilton, “Nazi Occupation Policies: A Comparative Perspective.”
Nathan Limpert, “Nationalism and the Disintegration of the Austrian Imperial Army.”
Rob Reiland, “POWs and Forced Labor in World War II.”
Gary Hartman, “From Cooperation to Coercion: Germany's Relationship with Hungary and Romania during World War II.”
Mark Sadler, “Conversations with Evil: The Interrogation of the Leading Nazi War Criminals in Mondorf, Luxembourg.”
Professional Development (external)
Holocaust Education Foundation Summer Institute, Northwestern University, 2004.
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum, Summer 2002.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, "The People of Vienna in a Time of Turmoil, 1850-1955," Vienna, Austria Summer 2001.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, "The Industrial Revolution in Comparative Perspective," Seminar for Economic History, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität, Munich, Germany, Summer 1995.
Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, University of Michigan, Faculty Development and Enrichment Grant, Summer 1994.
Medici Foundation Teaching Enrichment Grant, Fall 1993.
Professional Development (internal)
Faculty Learning Community on Building Strong Relationships in Online Classes, 2018-9
Faculty Learning Community on Authentic Assessment, 2017-18.
Faculty Learning Community on Scholarly Communication, 2012-2013.
Faculty Learning Community on Information Literacy, 2011-2012.
Quantitative Learning Summer Institute, 2010.
FLING on Learning Management Systems, 2010.
Hamilton Hybrid Teaching Learning Community, 2006-07.
CELT Community on Information Literacy, 2005-06.
CELT Community Teaching Writing Enhanced Courses, 2003-04.
Center for Writing Excellence. May workshop, 2003.
CELT Community Using Technology to Enhance Teaching, 2002-03.
CELT Senior Faculty Learning Community, 2001-02.
Faculty Summer Development Institute on Diversity Issues, 2000.
Learning Technologies Summer Institute, 1999, 2005.
Grants for teaching (internal)
Miami University Hamilton Academic Excellence Grants, 1992, 1998, 2001, 2009.
Miami University College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Enhancement Collaborative Grant, “Using New Technologies to Improve Learning and Enhance Student Participation in History Surveys: A Regional Campus Approach,” 2002-2003.
Miami University Learning Technologies Enrichment Grant, 2000-2001.
Miami University Hampton Fund for International Education grant, 1998.
Presentations on teaching
“Using Blackboard in Your History Classes,” workshop presented to the Miami University history department in January 2009.
“Saturday Select and Assessment in the Traditionally-Formatted MPF History Survey” presentation to University Senate, 2007.
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Service
To the profession
Member of the Ohio Board of Regents Ohio Transfer Module (OTM) for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013- 2024.
Member of the Ohio Board of Regents Transfer Audit Group (TAG) for History, 2012-2024.
Chair of the Historical Geography and GIS network of the Social Science History Association, 2011-2016.
European Social Science History Association, active participant and coordinator of panels for the Spatial and Digital History Network, 2005 – ongoing.
Chair of the Rural History network of the Social Science History Association, 2005-08.Social Science History Association Program Committee, 2005-08, 2011-present.
Ohio Academy of History, Program committee, 1999-2000, 2007-08.
Ohio Academy of History, Executive Committee, 2006-08.
Ohio Academy of History, Dissertation Awards Committee, 1992-94, 2013-6.
Associate Editor, Essays in Business and Economic History, 1993-1998.
Trustee, Economic and Business Historical Society, 1993-1998.
To Miami University and the College of Arts and Science
Liberal Education Council, 2008-09
Senate Committee for the Evaluation of Deans and Administrators, 2006-08.
Fine Arts and Humanities subcommittee, Graduate Council, 2005-07.
University Courses and Curriculum Committee, 2003-06.
CAS, Committee on Enhancing Teaching Effectiveness 2004-05.
CAS Curriculum Committee, 1998-2004, Chair, 2000, 2002-04.
University Disciplinary Board, 1999.
European Area Studies Committee, 1998-2006.
To the History Department
Holocaust Fund committee, 2007-11.
Speakers Committee, 2007-08.
Graduate Studies Committee, 2006-07.
Ad Hoc committee on guidelines for the Holocaust Fund, 2006-07.
Advisory Committee, 1998-2003.
Undergraduate Studies Committee, 1997-98, 2000-01.
To the of Humanities and Creative Arts Department
Chair, HCA P&T Committee, 2022.
Chair HCA VAP search committee, 2018.
To the Hamilton regional campus (later CLASS)
Member, Petitions Committee, 2021-2025
Faculty Research Committee, 2019-2020.
Technology in Learning Committee, 2017-2024.
Chair, Computer and Information Science search committee, 2017-2018.
Chair, Executive Committee of the Faculty Forum, 2013-2015.
Chair, Committee on Committees, 2008-10.
Ad-Hoc Inter-Disciplinary Committee of Advisors, 2006-09.
Political Science position search committee, 2006-08.
Reader, Scholarship Sub-committee, 2000-07.
Academic Concerns Committee, 2006-07.
Michael J. Colligan History Project Advisory Board, 2000-04.
Reader, Wilks Scholarship Committee, 2004-05.
Ad Hoc Committee on the John E. Dolibois History Prize, 2004.
Administrative Concerns Committee, 2000-03.
Chair, Michael J. Colligan History Project search, 2000.
Grants for working with schoolteachers: ($3,760,939)
Principal Investigator, Midwest Center for Teaching with Primary Sources grant, administered by Illinois State University for the Library of Congress, American Memory in Ohio, 2009. $15,000.
Academic Director, U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant, Ever-Greater Freedom, 1492-1965, with Middletown, Fairfield and Princeton Schools, 2008-11. $995,993.
Academic Director, U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant, The Beacon of Liberty, 1492-1965, with Hamilton, Middletown and Mason Schools, 2006-09. $999,953.
Academic Director, U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant, America's Journey to Freedom, 1492-1837, with Northwest and Fairfield City Schools, 2005-08. $999,993.
Academic Director, U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant, America's Journey to Freedom, 1492-1837, with Hamilton City Schools. 2003-06. $750,000.
To the community
Recorded 1½ hour podcast on the Stab-in-the-Back Myth for the “History’s Most” show.
Recorded a 1-hour video lecture on "Hitler, the Formation of the Nazi Party and the Munich Putsch" for Massolit.
Commentator on the German Federal Election of September 2017 for Voice of Islam radio program Drive Time, London, UK.
Cure CDM, consultant on grant searches, 2009-2024.
Public talks as part of Miami University Hamilton’s Egghead Café series, 2009-2010.
Judge, National History Day competition, 1998-2000, 2010-2013.
Reader for the Hamilton City Schools for the World War II Veterans Committee essay contests, 2004-05.
Talks to European History AP classes at Hamilton High School. 2004-06.
Assisted in the revision of the Hamilton City Schools Advanced Placement course curriculum for European history, 2004.
Host to international students for the Office of International Programs, 1997-2004.
Host to exchange students from the Business University of Vienna summer program conducted by the German department, 1998-2002.