A huge shout out from the History department faculty to our fabulous librarians in Pickler Memorial. They do terrific work every day, but went above and beyond during the spring 2020 semester!!
Dr Jason McDonald in KCPT Flatland
Jason McDonald, Assistant Professor of History, was recently interviewed by Flatland, the digital magazine of Kansas City Public Television (KCPT). The interview features in “The Gene: A Brief History of Eugenics in the Heartland,” which accompanies KCPT’s airing of Ken Burn’s documentary The Gene: An Intimate History.
Missouri History Conference
Students Ben Smythe (MAE history), Alexandra Miller (BA history) and Tucker Broadbooks (BA history) represented Truman at the Missouri Conference on History in St. Louis, March 12, by participating in a panel entitled “New Perspectives on the Presidency of Harry Truman.” The panel was chaired by Jason McDonald, assistant professor of history. Smythe presented a paper entitled “Defying Defeat: Harry Truman and the Presidential Election of 1948,” which was based on research undertaken on a graduate course with McDonald in spring 2019. The presentations delivered by Miller—“Truman the Historian: An Investigation of Foreign Policy in Israel”—and Broadbooks—“Truman and Hoover: Relations between the White House and the FBI during the McCarthy Era”—were both based on archival research completed by them during internships at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Mo., in summer 2019.
Historical Society Writing Workshop
Hello Historians!
I know it’s getting to the last of the semester so everyone is busy with papers and studying, but luckily for you Historical Society is here to help! This Thursday we will be cohosting a writing workshop with the Writing Center. I hope you can all come down to VH 1428 at 6:30 to join us for this writing and editing bonanza! If you need help, if you can help, or if you simply want to be a room with all that writing energy, then walk on down to Violette and join in the fun!
As a reminder, this Thursday we will also be holding our elections so if you are a full member of the Society and you want to run for office or want a say in who wins office then you have another good reason to be there.
See you soon!
Students (Current and Recently Graduated) and Faculty Represent Truman at Missouri Conference on History in Kansas City
Professor Marc Becker, Department of History, chaired a session on “Imperialism and Resistance in Latin America” at the Missouri Conference on History held in Kansas City, Missouri, March 6-8, 2019. On the same panel, History major Shannon Fetzner delivered a paper entitled “Assimilation, Resistance, or Both? Indigenous Responses to Christianity in Colonial Peru.”
On the session “Otherness and Othering in Diverse Settings and Contexts,” Truman was represented by current student Anne Morgan, whose paper “Modernizing Migrants: Truman’s Commission on Migratory Labor and an ‘American Standard of Living’” was based on research conducted during a summer internship at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. Participating on the 
same panel were recent Truman graduate Houston Roberts, with a presentation based on the capstone paper he prepared under the supervision of Professor Torbjorn Wandel and entitled “Birth of a Klavern: The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan in St. Joseph, Missouri, 1921–1925,” and Dr. Jason McDonald, Department of History, with “Nature or Nurture? The Making of the Eugenicist Harry Laughlin.”
White House Decision Center
On 4 March 2019, the HIST 367, Life and Presidency of Harry S. Truman class visited the White House Decision Center at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. They participated in the Korean War simulation. They opted for American involvement in the conflict, but against crossing the 38th Parallel or dropping atomic bombs on China. If only they were running things in the nation’s capital today.
Professor Daniel Mandell Speaks at Mizzou
On 25 January at 3:30 pm in Jesse Hall
2018-2019 Distinguished Research Fellow and
Truman State Professor Daniel Mandell
will dissect how the agreement reflected early modern European and English paradigms of relations with indigenous peoples, as Plymouth respected Wampanoag sovereignty even as it claimed the right to judge potential conflicts between individuals from the two communities. He will also reflect on how this agreement presaged American policies regarding Native sovereignty and human rights –his larger research project at the Kinder.
2018 Kohlenberg-Towne Lecture
