University of Pennsylvania History Department

Penn History Professor Brent Cebul is working on a new digital mapping project looking at the impact of Federal Housing Administration policies on the availability of affordable rental housing post-World War II.

Redlining and rentals | Penn Today Historian Brent Cebul in the School of Arts & Sciences is working on a new digital mapping project looking at the impact of Federal Housing Administration policies on the availability of affordable rental housing post-World War II.

History Major Amanda Yagerman will be commissioned into the Navy on May 18 before graduating from Penn on the 19th. On her love of history, she says, "I’m fascinated by the idea that there have been so many different iterations of the human experience....“There’s so much that we all have in common, but there’s also so many civilizations and societies that have risen and fallen that had completely different value systems than us and lived their lives in a completely different way.”

Congratulations, Mandy!

Laying the groundwork at Penn before taking to the air | Penn Today Amanda Yagerman, a fourth-year student is majoring in history and English in the College of Arts and Sciences while training to be a naval officer in the Naval ROTC program. She says her experience at Penn has been “the best of both worlds.”

History Major Sophie Mwaisela discusses her Honors Thesis research, conducted in Switzerland this summer:

A question of neutrality: Switzerland’s role in 19th-century imperialism | Penn Today History undergraduate Sophie Mwaisela traveled to Geneva this summer to conduct research for her honors thesis.

Penn History is pleased to announce this exciting upcoming event: a screening of the documentary Town Destroyer, followed by a conversation with directors Alan Snitow and Deborah Kauffman.

Town Destroyer examines a heated controversy over Depression-era WPA murals painted by leftwing artist Victor Arnautoff in a San Francisco public high school, which depict George Washington not only as a military leader and President, but also as a slaveowner and destroyer of Native peoples. The documentary explores the politics of art and history at a time of polarized national debate over the power of images, racism, trauma, and what should be taught in schools. You can find more information about the film here: https://www.snitow-kaufman.org/the-mural-controversy/

Co-Sponsored by the Wolf Humanities Center; the Department of Art History; and The Education, Culture, and Society program at Penn GSE.

Alan Allport Named Montgomery Gruber Professor Alan Allport, professor of history, has been named the Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History at the Maxwell School.

The professorship was established by Walter Montgomery ’67 B.A. (PSc) and his wife, Marian Gruber. Montgomery said he created it out of “deep appreciation for the importance to our education system of teaching, research and scholarship.”

Allport’s research interests include 20th-century British history with a focus on the first and second world wars. His recent book, "Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War: 1938-1941" (Knopf Doubleday, 2020), was awarded the Historical Writers' Association 2021 Crown Award for nonfiction.

Previous books, published by Yale University Press, include: "Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939-1945" and "Demobbed: Coming Home After the Second World War," for which Allport received the Longman History Today Book of the Year Award.

“Alan is a brilliant writer, scholar and teacher,” says Carol Faulkner, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of history. “His books have transformed the understanding of the British experience of World War II. I'm thrilled we can recognize his contributions with the Montgomery-Gruber professorship. The Maxwell School is lucky to have him.”

Allport received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. His advisor was Thomas Childers.

He succeeds Andrew Wender Cohen, professor of history, who was named the Montgomery Gruber Professor in 2017.

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/news/article/alan-allport-named-montgomery-gruber-professor?fbclid=IwAR2Bjy2YJc7BsuA-Uqo5gG4_K_n3r5KiiHL6T_1t_GLFhhCqPsFwSU_8GmU

Alan Allport Named Montgomery Gruber Professor Alan Allport, professor of history, has been named the Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History at the Maxwell School.

Francis Ryan has been awarded the John C. Brennan Award for excellence in fostering understanding of Labor History in Schools by the Pennsylvania Labor History Society.

Ryan completed his Ph.D. in History at Penn in 2003. Ryan's advisor was Walter Licht, and his dissertation was titled Everyone Royalty: AFSCME, Municipal Workers and Urban Power in Philadelphia, 1921-1983

Congratulations to SMLR's Francis Ryan on receiving the Labor History Society's John C. Brennan Award for "excellence in fostering understanding of in our schools." PLHS President Ken Wolensky made the presentation at AFSCME Council 13 in Harrisburg.

Baseball history, American history: Sarah Gronningsater’s popular course links the two in a study of the sport from the Civil War to Jackie Robinson to the current day.

Baseball history, American history | Penn Today Sarah Gronningsater’s popular course links the two in a study of the sport from the Civil War to Jackie Robinson to the current day.

Sam Finkelman, a PhD candidate in our department, has been helping Ukrainians after his research trip in the region was interrupted by war. Read more:

Ph.D. candidate’s initiative brings refugees out of Ukraine and supplies in | Penn Today When Sam Finkelman’s yearlong research trip to Russia, Hungary, and Ukraine was interrupted by war, he went into action.

On the 330th anniversary of the Salem witch trials, historian Kathleen M. Brown discusses the stories, theories, and contemporary parallels to one of America’s stranger chapters in history.

Possessed: The Salem witch trials | Penn Today This spring marks the 330th anniversary of the Salem witch trials, during which a total of 20 “afflicted girls” accused around 150 people, 19 of whom were executed. Historian Kathleen M. Brown discusses why this episode is still fascinating today.

Congratulations to our own Mia Bay, whose new book Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance (Harvard, 2021) has won the prestigious Bancroft Prize.

Histories of Travel Segregation and Chinese Migration Win Bancroft Prize The scholars Mia Bay and Mae Ngai have won the award, considered one of the most prestigious in the field of American history.

In the Washington Post, PhD student Sasha Zborovsky has joined others in the department putting the Ukrainian crisis in historical perspective.

Perspective | Putin’s war aims to undo the traumas of the 1990s for Russians Territorial expansion is part of Putin’s attempt to rebuild a national identity — with no regard for Ukrainians.

Some of our current faculty and PhD students have been lending their expertise to help put the Ukrainian crisis in perspective.

Benjamin Nathans offers background on Putin’s use of history in justifying his war in Ukraine:

Russia’s attack on Ukraine, through the lens of history | Penn Today Historian Benjamin Nathans offers background on Putin’s use of history in justifying his war in Ukraine