Department of History

Run for the roses: FSU professor reflects on history of the Kentucky Derby

Published: May 2, 2022 | 9:52 am | Posted in: Expert Pitches

All eyes are on Churchill Downs this week as the horse racing industry prepares for the 148th Kentucky Derby. Associate Professor of History Katherine Mooney is available to provide expert commentary to reporters covering the event. Mooney is the author of “Race Horse Men,” which examines the generations of Black men who built the racing […]

FSU expert available for context on early climate change research

Published: April 15, 2022 | 11:02 am | Posted in: Expert Pitches

Ron Doel, a Florida State University associate professor who researches the history of science and technology.

Earth Day marks a time to consider the environmental challenges facing humanity, including our changing climate. Through the efforts of scientists around the planet, the understanding of those changes is constantly being refined. A wealth of our knowledge about how the climate works is due to the interest of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), […]

World War II Institute partners with Florida Historic Capitol Museum for exhibit on Florida’s role in war

Published: December 7, 2021 | 1:20 pm | Posted in: Arts & Humanities

The exhibit includes artifacts such as a brochure loaned by the Tampa Bay History Center about MacDill Field, which was built near Tampa in 1939 and was critical in defending the Gulf of Mexico against Nazi U-boat attacks on merchant ships. To the right is an M1 helmet loaned from Camp Blanding Museum. The U.S. Army designed the manganese steel M1 helmet and started production in April 1941. Over 22 million of these helmets were produced during World War II. (Photo courtesy of Florida Historic Capitol Museum)

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Florida was a mostly rural and agricultural state, a relatively unpopulated place compared to the rest of the country. By the time the war ended, federal spending for military bases and an influx of service members had begun a transformation that continues to this day. […]

FSU expert available to comment for 80th anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

Published: December 3, 2021 | 2:55 pm | Posted in: Expert Pitches

Florida State University Associate Professor of History Kurt Piehler, director of the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience

The attack on Pearl Harbor 80 years ago spurred U.S. involvement in World War II, sending the country into a conflict that would change American society in profound ways. Among the many changes was making the country more tolerant of religious pluralism, said Florida State University Associate Professor of History Kurt Piehler, director of the […]

FSU experts available to comment on Thanksgiving traditions

Published: November 10, 2021 | 9:46 am | Posted in: Expert Pitches

As millions of people across the United States prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, Florida State University experts are available to talk with reporters working on articles about gratitude, the myth and reality of the holiday and the role turkeys have played for Indigenous peoples long before Europeans settled the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Randolph Clarke, professor, Department […]

FSU expert reflects on US-UK relationship and 80th anniversary of Atlantic Charter

Published: August 10, 2021 | 1:00 pm | Posted in: Expert Pitches

In 1941, the United States and the United Kingdom were already preparing for the aftermath of World War II. In August of that year, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Canada for a series of discussions. Those talks became the basis of the Atlantic Charter, a statement from the […]

FSU expert available to comment on anniversary of first human in space, legacy of space race

Published: April 12, 2021 | 10:14 am | Posted in: Expert Pitches

It has been 60 years since the first human journeyed into space. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space on April 12, 1961. He completed a full orbit of the Earth in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, reaching a height of 203 miles above the surface of the planet. The event […]

FSU experts available for coverage of 19th Amendment anniversary

Published: August 13, 2020 | 12:04 pm | Posted in: Expert Pitches

Jennifer L. Koslow, associate professor of history

After decades of activism and political struggle, the 19th Amendment was adopted 100 years ago this month. The new amendment supplanted state-by-state suffrage laws and gave women across America the right to vote. Florida State University experts are available to speak about the history of women’s suffrage as well as contemporary issues related to women, […]

FSU-produced documentary featuring woman World War II photographer to air on WFSU

Published: July 20, 2020 | 2:58 pm | Posted in: Arts & Humanities

Soldiers playing cards in a photo from Charlotte Mansfield's World War II scrapbooks. Courtesy of the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience.

A Florida State University-produced documentary will explore the contributions of a Women’s Army Corps photographer during World War II. “Charlotte Mansfield: A Woman Photographer Goes to War” uses unpublished military photographs and personal correspondence from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience at Florida State, as well as expert and family interviews, […]

FSU institute’s new online exhibit explores lives of women during World War II

Published: July 14, 2020 | 2:05 pm | Posted in: Arts & Humanities

From left, Maxine Newlander, Calista Bliler and Willie Mae Williams, who all served in the military during World War II. They are among the women whose stories are featured in the online exhibit "Women at War: At Home and Service in World War II."

A new online exhibit from Florida State University’s Institute on World War II and the Human Experience highlights the lives of American women during the war. “Women at War: At Home and Service in World War II” was initially scheduled to open in April at the Chipola Center for the Arts at Chipola College in Marianna, Fla., but moved to an online platform in […]

FSU expert available to comment on Tulsa race massacre

Published: June 17, 2020 | 4:34 pm | Posted in: Expert Pitches

Meghan Martinez, teaching assistant professor, Department of History

Many Americans may never have heard of “Black Wall Street” or the Tulsa race massacre until this month. In 1921, a mob attacked an African American neighborhood in the Oklahoma city. By the time the violence ended, hundreds of buildings had been destroyed and dozens of people were dead. The exact number of deaths is unknown, but historians believe […]

FSU professor available to comment on the Black Death and its lessons for COVID-19

Published: March 26, 2020 | 10:58 am | Posted in: Expert Pitches

A 14th century depiction of the burial of plague victims at Tournai in present-day Belgium. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The Black Death looms large in the history of infectious disease. The pandemic — an outbreak of bubonic plague which was probably spread predominantly by rats and fleas — struck Italy in 1347. Recent evidence on mortality suggests that in just a few years, the disease killed around 60 percent of the population in Europe, […]

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