Professor of History
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (323) 343-2046
Office: King Hall C4076A
Office Hours for Spring 2025: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00 to 3:30 pm and 5:00 to 5:55 pm in my office and via Zoom. No appointments ever needed. Email me for Zoom link. I can also meet at other times; just ask.
Spring 2025 Classes
- HIST 2020: Recent U.S. History // King Hall B2014 Tues/Thur 1:40 to 2:55 pm // syllabus (1.0 version)
- HIST 4960: Issues in Teaching History-Social Science // King Hall B2015 Thursdays 6:00 to 8:45 pm // syllabus
- HIST 5800: The Historian as Public Intellectual // King Hall B3015 // Tuesdays 6:00 to 8:45 pm // syllabus
I joined the History Department at Cal State LA in 2000. As a historian of U.S. international relations, I have written on the rise of international tourism and on U.S. relations with France during the Cold War. My book, Cold War Holidays, won the Bernath Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. My current historical research explores controversies surrounding multinational corporations and commerce since the late nineteenth century. In recent years, I have partnered with fellow historians to publish on new methods for teaching history in college, especially the use of peer mentors or learning facilitators in introductory U.S. history courses. Click here for my articles in the History Teacher (2017) and the Journal of American History (2020). I enjoy working with and learning from high school teachers to help bridge the gap between K-12 classrooms and college. For more on my research and teaching activities, see below. Head here for a full c.v. (.pdf).
Resources I've Created for History Teachers and Students
Links! -- a list of favorite web resources for history teachers and students
Glossary of Historiographic Terms -- TALK LIKE A HISTORIAN!
The Bookends Method for Smartly Skimming Books -- READ LIKE A HISTORIAN! (learn more in less time, or your money back)
The Bookends Method -- a longer version of the above reading document
How to Write an Argumentative Essay -- WRITE LIKE A HISTORIAN!
Classes at Cal State LA
Click here for a list of classes I've taught.
Education
Ph.D. in History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000
MA in History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1996
BA in History and Political Science, Duke University, 1994
