Department of History

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Florida State University honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

For more on MLK Week events, visit mlk.fsu.edu.

Flip through this digital notebook to meet Skylar! Sky is a junior from Jacksonville, Florida, studying history. This is her second semester as an intern for FSU History and she is looking forward to further expanding her research and graphic design skills. We can't wait to see what amazing content she creates this Spring!
Post credit: Abigail Tremblay

Join us in welcoming one of our Spring 2025 social media interns, Ryan!
Ryan is a senior History major from Fairfax, Virginia. When he isn't listening to Mastodon or watching Band Of Brothers, you might find Ryan hiking or hanging out with his two dogs, Tilly and Juno.
We're excited to see what Ryan has in store for this semester!
Post credit: Sculley

In this article, Florida State University History alumnus Kieran Stenson tells us about his experience writing an undergraduate honors thesis about the Polish Constitution of 1791. His project examines the constitution’s historical significance and its rhetorical style, combining political history and literary analysis. Head over to our departmental website to read more: fla.st/HJEGH2XK
Post credit: Megan

Congratulations to FSU History alumna Dr. Kathryn L. Beasley whose book, The Proof Is in the Dough: Rural Southern Women, Extension, and Making Money, has just been published! Based on her Ph.D. dissertation, Beasley's book outlines how southern women applied their agricultural and domestic skills to improve their lives.

Additionally, the Library Journal gave The Proof Is in the Dough a Starred Review and called it a “Don’t Miss:” https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/dont-miss-books-december-2024-starred-reviews

Well done, Dr. Beasley!

More about the book:
The Proof Is in the Dough examines how rural white and African American women in Alabama and Florida used the Cooperative Extension Service’s home demonstration programming between 1914 and 1929 as a means to earn extra income.

Beasley explores an area of rural women’s history that has not been closely examined—that is, how rural American women involved with home demonstration used the skills they learned as a way to better themselves economically. Furthermore, Beasley traces how this extra income allowed these women to shape their own producing and consuming habits.

While most home demonstration programming during the Progressive Era and 1920s focused on ways to save money—among other objectives—rural women in Alabama and Florida used different strategies to earn more money and gain some economic independence. Beasley’s research shows how Alabama and Florida’s rural women exercised their own determination and resourcefulness to create ways to economically sustain themselves by using food, tangible items, handicrafts, small businesses, and more to their advantage.

However, while there were similarities in how these rural women earned extra money, the states in which they lived differed in important agricultural ways. Florida offered a wider variety of growing and environmental seasons and, as a result, a larger diversity of crops. By taking a comparative approach—both Florida versus Alabama and Black versus white—Beasley details the unique and innovative ways that rural southern women applied their considerable agricultural and domestic skills to improve their lives and the lives of their families. In so doing, she also reveals how disposable income helped establish ideas of empowerment and financial independence in the years before the economic struggles of the 1930s.

More about the author:
Kathryn L. Beasley received her PhD in History from Florida State University in 2020. She grew up with a close association with the Cooperative Extension Service, which sparked her interest in agricultural and rural history. She is a recipient of the Southern Association for Women Historians’ A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize for the best article in the field of southern women’s history. Her writing has also appeared in the Alabama Review, Florida Historical Quarterly, the Journal of the NACAA, Peanut Science, and the White House Quarterly.

The Proof Is in the Dough is published by the University of Georgia Press: https://ugapress.org/book/9780820367910/the-proof-is-in-the-dough/

Congratulations to Dr. Katherine C. Mooney who was a finalist for the 2023 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for her book, Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey. This award, founded in 2006, recognizes the best books of each year with a horse racing backdrop.

More about Dr. Mooney's book:
Isaac Murphy, born enslaved in 1861, still reigns as one of the greatest jockeys in American history. Black jockeys like Murphy were at the top of the most popular sport in America at the end of the nineteenth century. They were internationally famous, the first African American superstar athletes—and with wins in three Kentucky Derbies and countless other prestigious races, Murphy was the greatest of them all.

At the same time, he lived through the seismic events of Emancipation and Reconstruction and formative conflicts over freedom and equality in the United States. And inevitably he was drawn into those conflicts, with devastating consequences.

Dr. Mooney uncovers the history of Murphy’s troubled life, his death in 1896 at age thirty-five, and his afterlife. In recounting Murphy’s personal story, she also tells two of the great stories of change in nineteenth-century America: the debates over what a multiracial democracy might look like and the battles over who was to hold power in an economy that increasingly resembled the corporate, wealth-polarized world we know today.

Tap https://bit.ly/3Wjzh4C for more information on Dr. Mooney's book.

Put a dime into the FSU History Jukebox and check out all of these famous songs which you may or may not know are inspired by historical events!

Post credit: Annalia

Sources:
https://www.loudersound.com/features/living-colour-cult-of-personality-interview-cm-punk-wrestlemania

https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2014/08/looking-back-on-wwi-stings-childrens.html?m=1

https://medium.com//sunday-bloody-sunday-the-story-behind-u2s-most-political-song-f3fd719e1009

https://www.tetonscience.org/buffalo-soldiers-more-than-a-bob-marley-song/

https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/interviews/enola-gay-omd

Congratulations to Dr. Caroline Hackett who is the winner of the 2024 Mary Elizabeth Thomas Dissertation Prize!

The FSU History Department has awarded this prize to Dr. Hackett for her dissertation entitled "Propriétaires in Plain Sight: The Legal and Economic Autonomy of Married Women in Southern France, 1750-1815." The awarding committee felt that using a convincing blend of narrow case studies and broad statistical summaries, Dr. Hackett shows that, contrary to the prevailing belief, women exercised independent property rights in later eighteenth century France. This dissertation intervenes in a crowded field, and Dr. Hackett does an excellent job of defining a distinct role for her story amidst a complex historiography. Her work exemplifies novel discovery through sustained archival research, lucid use of the literature of the field, and polished presentation.

Dr. Hackett will deliver a presentation on her research during the 2025 Spring semester.

The dissertation prize is named after Mary Elizabeth Thomas who taught at Florida State College for Women/ Florida State University from 1944 to 1985. She was the author of Jamaica and Voluntary Laborers from Africa, 1840-1865 (1974); she taught HIS 326/ AFH 3345 Africa Modern World; and she was one of the founding members of the European History Section of the Southern Historical Association in 1955 (one of only five women).
Well done, Dr. Hackett!

CFP: History Department Undergraduate Research Paper Award

In order to honor excellence among undergraduate History majors, the FSU History Department has created an award for the best undergraduate research paper. All History majors are strongly encouraged to apply.

The winning essay will go well beyond the expectations of the class for which it was written, as it should demonstrate the author’s potential for undertaking independent historical research and for engaging critically with both primary and secondary sources.

Eligibility: All History undergraduate students who have written a research paper during the 2024 calendar year (January 1st, 2024 to December 31st, 2024). You must be enrolled to be eligible.
Award Amount: $500.00

Procedure:
Papers should be approximately 8 to 20 pages, typed, double-spaced, 12pt font, and written for a class taught in the History Department at Florida State University during the preceding calendar year. Papers must contain original historical research based on primary and secondary sources (historiographical essays are ineligible).

When you submit your paper, it should not include the professor’s written comments or other information, like a grade.
Along with the paper, please include a title cover sheet indicating your name, the title of your paper, and your FSU email address.

Submission: Submit all materials as a single pdf to Ms. Madeline Robertson:
Deadline: 3:00pm on Friday, February 21, 2025

Questions? Please contact Dr. George Williamson:

Kimberly Windham is the subject librarian for History. She received her BA in History from FSU and is currently completing her Ph.D. in the History department. In this interview she talks about her position and the ways students can utilize the university’s library system.
To read more, click on https://history.fsu.edu/article/interview-kimberly-windham-humanities-subject-librarian
Post credit: Annalia

Meet the History Club officers: Malek, Michael, Daela, and Christopher!
The FSU History Club meets regularly on Mondays in the early evening. Find out more by clicking https://history.fsu.edu/undergraduate/history-club-fsu

Welcome to Spring 2025!
This post introduces you to key people in the Department of History and how to connect with them.

Ms. Kozar's walk-in advising schedule varies weekly. Email her for the up-to-date information . Most weeks, she will be available from Monday through Thursday, 10am to 1pm in BEL 421A.

Have a great semester!

Two Tribes of Florida: A Shared Environment (A Symposium)
January 16-17, 2025

Please join us as we welcome the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida to Tallahassee and Florida State University for The Two Tribes of Florida: A Shared Environment, January 16-17, 2025. This symposium will explore some of the issues that these modern tribes face in terms of how their history is presented, how their cultures are maintained, and how they have maintained an essential role in guiding the state into the future.

There are two federally recognized tribes in the state of Florida: The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. With historic homelands that extend throughout the state and reservation lands in the southern part of the peninsula, these sovereign tribes have maintained their role as protectors of Florida's environment. This symposium will explore some of the issues that these modern tribes face in terms of how their history is presented, how their cultures are maintained, and how they have maintained an essential role in guiding the state into the future.

This event has been created in partnership with the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. It begins with an evening reception on Thursday evening at the Florida Historic Capitol Museum and continues on Friday with a daylong event at FSU's Miller Hall. The symposium will end with a celebration of Erika Deitz's Osceola's Vision in the Student Union.

For more information and to RSVP go to fla.st/18W3CRF7

Put a dime into the FSU History Jukebox and check out all of these famous songs you may or may not know are inspired by historical events!

Post credit: Annalia

Sources:
www.historyhit.com/culture/ra-ra-rasputin-boney-m/
faroutmagazine.co.uk/chorus-of-the-clash-spanish-bombs/
americansongwriter.com/behind-the-meaning-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/
www.revisitingcreedence.com/culture/how-fortunate-son-became-one-of-the-most-popular-anti-war-anthems?ref=the-e-world.com
americansongwriter.com/the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald-gordon-lightfoot-behind-the-song/