In 1914, the United States was an emerging world power. Many of its citizens looked forward to a future defined by more extensive American involvement in global affairs. However, their growing optimism also masked profound disagreements about the kind of role Americans should play on the world stage. Some wanted their country to challenge the […]
Four Books I Recommend from Comps – Law, Knowledge, and Empire in the Middle East and North Africa
by David Rahimi Before moving to the final dissertation stage of the PhD, graduate students in History must first pass their comprehensive exams (also known as orals, qualifying exams, or comps). These are designed in part to show mastery of a student’s chosen teaching and research fields. Experiences vary depending on how the student and […]
IHS Podcast: The New Faces of God in Latin America
IHS podcasts are a new podcast series initiated by the Institute for Historical Studies’ Director, Dr. Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra. This episode highlights Dr. Virginia Garrard’s most recent book: Faces of God in Latin America: Emerging Forms of Vernacular Christianity (Oxford, 2020). Each episode features Dr. Cañizares-Esguerra and Ashley Garcia, a PhD Candidate in History at UT Austin. Introduction […]
In the Shadow of Vietnam: The United States and the Third World in the 1960s
By Mark Lawrence At the dawn of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy and other American liberals expressed boundless optimism about the ability of the United States to promote democracy and economic development in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. So vast were American power, resources, and know-how that almost anything seemed possible in […]
Review of Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration (2018)
In Undocumented Lives, Ana Raquel Minian explores the inner world of undocumented Mexican migrants in the United States from 1965 to the present. While detailing the harsh realities that these migrants faced, Minian also demonstrates how the migrants’ perceptions of their lives differed significantly from those of the state and how the draconian migration policies […]
In Memoriam: Dr. Robert A. Divine, 1929-2021
On the passing of George W. Littlefield Professor Emeritus in American History Dr. Robert Alexander Divine on October 13, 2021, Professor H.W. Brands and Professor Mark Atwood Lawrence offer this remembrance. The Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin lost one of its true giants last Wednesday when Robert Divine, a preeminent […]
This is Democracy: NATO Alliance
In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary talk with special guests, Dr. James Goldgeier and Dr. Joshua Shifrinson, about NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and discuss why the alliance exists, the roll it has played, and how we should think about the alliance’s future. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Transatlantic Elegy”. Guests James Goldgeier […]
Review of The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority (2015)
In the current era of #StopAsianHate, there have been numerous conversations regarding the unique position occupied by Asian and Asian Americans in America’s wider ethnic and racial hierarchies. Importantly, these conversations have examined the origins of the so-called the ‘model minority’ myth. Esteemed Asian American historian Madeline Hsu incisively captures that history in The Good […]
IHS Podcast: Welcomed and then Expelled: The Plight of Chinese Mexicans from 1910 to 1960
IHS podcasts are a new podcast series initiated by the Institute for Historical Studies’ Director, Dr. Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra. They are paired with weekly workshops and are designed to foster discussion between graduate students and distinguished scholars in the field. Along with graduate students and guests, each episode features Dr. Cañizares-Esguerra and Ashley Garcia, a PhD […]
IHS Book Talk: Hungry for Revolution: The Politics of Food and the Making of Modern Chile
Institute for Historical Studies – Wednesday, September 22, 2021 Introducing the book Hungry for Revolution (University of California Press, June 2021) tells the story of how struggles over food fueled the rise and fall of Chile’s Popular Unity coalition and one of Latin America’s most expansive social welfare states. Reconstructing ties among workers, consumers, scientists, and […]