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Department of History

Dr. Alan Lessoff

University Professor
History
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 327
Office Hours
MWF, 11-12
Office Phone
(309) 438-8083office
phone
Email
ahlesso@ilstu.eduemail
  • About
  • Education
  • Research

Current Courses

HIS 322.001 American Urban History

HIS 135.007 History Of The United States To 1865

HIS 135.008 History Of The United States To 1865

HIS 499.008 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis

HIS 398.001 Professional Practice: Internship In History

HIS 498.001 Professional Practice: Public/Applied History

HIS 490.004 Readings -- Field Of Study

HIS 135.001 History Of The United States To 1865

HIS 135.002 History Of The United States To 1865

HIS 135.003 History Of The United States To 1865

HIS 135.004 History Of The United States To 1865

HIS 499.002 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis

HIS 398.001 Professional Practice: Internship In History

HIS 498.001 Professional Practice: Public/Applied History

HIS 490.005 Readings -- Field Of Study

HIS 247.001 The Gilded Age In America, 1877-1900

Teaching Interests & Areas

U.S. and comparative urban history
U.S. Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Research Interests & Areas

U.S. urban and local history.
U.S. Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Ph D History

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

MA History

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

BA History

Cambridge University
Cambridge, England

BA History

Columbia University
New York, NY

Book, Authored

Where Texas Meets the Sea: Corpus Christi and Its History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015).

Book, Chapter

with Carola Hein. “The Original North American Petroleumscape: Oil-and-Gas Empire, Petrochemical Nation.” Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Ed Carola Hein. London: Routledge, 2021. Pp. 4-42.
“Lewis Mumford, Thomas Welskopp, and the Art of the Usable Past.” Entbehrung und Erfüllung: Praktiken von Arbeit, Körper und Konsum in der Geschichte moderner Gesellschaften. Ed. Gleb Albert, Daniel Siemens, and Frank Wolff. Bonn: Dietz, 2021. Pp. 431-46.
“’Leur moralité est celle de leur entourage’: Le bossisme américain et la conception outre-Atlantique de la corruption urbaine moderne.” Maudire le ville: Socio-histoire comparée de la dénonciation de la corruption urbaine. Ed. Nicolas Maisetti and Cesare Mattina. Villeneuve d’Ascq: Septentrion, 2021. Pp. 45-81.
“Art and Architecture.” A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. ed. Christopher McKnight Nichols and Nancy C. Unger. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017. Pp. 151-64.
“The Gilded Age City in American Political Discourse and Lore.” Stadt—Macht—Korruption, ed. Jens-Ivo Engels, et al. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017. Pp. 143-54.

Book, Edited

ed. with Thomas Welskopp. Fractured Modernity: America Confronts Modern Times, 1890s to 1940s (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2012).

Journal Article

“The Texas Coast: Ship Channel Network of the Petroleum Age,” Urban Planning 8, n. 3 (2023): 330-345 (https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning).
“Urban History and the Transnational Perspective.” Yearbook of Transnational History 3 (2020): 179-213.
“James Bryce, William T. Stead, and the Trans-Atlantic Meaning of the American City.” International Journal of Regional and Local History 14, n. 2 (Nov. 2019): 76-93.
with James J. Connolly. "From Political Insult to Political Theory: The Boss, the Machine, and the Pluralist City." Journal of Policy History 25, n. 2 (Spring 2013): 139-72.