About the Department

With thirty faculty members and more than 600 full-time undergraduate and graduate students, the Illinois State History department is one of the largest in the state. We offer over 100 undergraduate and graduate courses, which range in time from ancient history to the present, in area from North America and Europe to Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America, and in scope from politics, economics and religion to diplomatic, intellectual, and military history. Strengths of the department in teaching and research include social history, history education, and urban history.

Although our program is a large one, the department prides itself on providing students with personalized, rigorous education, both at undergraduate and graduate levels. The majority of classes have thirty or fewer students in them. Almost all classes, including introductory ones, are taught by full-time faculty. In evaluations of teaching by students and alumni, History professors consistently rank among the highest of the sixteen departments in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The department also excels in scholarship. Its faculty has published many books, including a number of prize winners, and dozens of articles in learned journals. Their publications have been awarded a number of prizes by professional bodies.

The most recent publications include:

Women's Rights, Racial Integration, and Education from 1850-1920:  The Case of Sarah Raymond, the First Female Superintendent by Monica Cousins Noraian

Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban League and the Politics of Racial Uplift, 1910-1950 by Touré Reed

The Will to Believe: Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and America's Strategy for Peace and Security

     by Ross Kennedy

Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940 by Amy Wood

Education and the Cold War by Andrew Hartman

Artifacts of Revolution by Patrice Olsen

European Portrayals of Jerusalem by Issam Nassar

Manuscript Studies by Ray Clemens and Timothy Graham

Historical Dictionary of the Progressive Era  by Catherine Cocks, Peter C. Holloran and Alan Lessoff

Circumstances are Destiny by Tina Stewart Brakebill