Below is a collection of some of the History Department's news and announcements, gathered throughout the Fall 2019 semester.
New Publications
Sarah Milov published a new book titled The Cigarette. Smithsonian Magazine named it one of the ten best history books of 2019.
James Loeffler published (co-edited with Moria Paz) The Law of Strangers: Jewish Lawyers and International Law in the Twentieth Century with Cambridge University Press.
Alan Taylor published Thomas Jefferson’s Education with W.W. Norton.
Kyrill Kunakhovich published (with Piotr Kosicki) The Long 1989: Decades of Global Revolution with Central European University Press.
Awards
James Loeffler's book, Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century, won the 2019 Association for Jewish Studies Jordan Schnitzer Award for Best Book in Modern Jewish History as well as the 2019 American Historical Association’s Dorothy Rosenberg Prize.
Andrew Kahrl’s Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America’s Most Exclusive Shoreline received the Connecticut Book Award for best non-fiction book for 2018 from the Connecticut Center for the Book. The book also won the 2018 Homer D. Babbidge Award from the Association for the Study of Connecticut History.
Philip Zelikow’s book, To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth, was #8 on the Washington Post’s non-fiction best-seller list.
Forbes named Alan Taylor’s Thomas Jefferson’s Education one of the “Year’s Best Books About Higher Education.”
The Wall Street Journal named Liz Varon’s book, “Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War” one of the Best Books of 2019.
Articles & Book Reviews
Mel Leffler published an article in The Atlantic titled “China Isn’t the Soviet Union. Confusing the Two Is Dangerous.”
Philip Zelikow published an article titled “Self-Dealing in Ukraine: The Core of the Impeachment Inquiry,” for Lawfare.
Sarah Milov published an article on vaping in Time as well as an article on marijuana reform in The Atlantic.
Liz Varon wrote about UVA’s role in promulgating the Lost Cause creed for UVA Today’s series on the University in the age of segregation.
James Loeffler wrote a column in The Chronicle of Higher Education about human rights and the academic right.
Alan Taylor’s book, Thomas Jefferson’s Education was reviewed by The Atlantic.
The New Republic reviewed Sarah Milov’s book, The Cigarette: A Political History.
Neeti Nair reviewed Gyan Prakash’s book, Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and Democracy’s Turning Point in The New Rambler.
Gary Gallagher (Emeritus Professor) reviewed Sidney Blumenthal's book, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1856-1860, in The Washington Post.
The Los Angeles Review of Books featured Sarah Milov’s The Cigarette.
Media and Miscellaneous
Andrew Kahrl was named Interim Co-Director for Academic Affairs for the Democracy Initiative. He will serve with Melody Barnes, Co-Director for Policy and Public Affairs.
UVAToday highlighted John Mason in a faculty video series, focusing on his interdisciplinary research with the Eastside Speedway (Waynesboro) drag racing community. Watch the video here.
George Gilliam gave the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Virginia Association of Countries (VACo). His address focused on the 400th anniversary of the General Assembly.
Tom Klubock organized the University of Virginia Centro de las Américas’/Americas Center’s Fall Symposium, “From the Mouth of a Shark: Causes & Consequences of the Central American Refugee Crisis” with Micheline Marcom of the English department.
Black Bus Stop, a collaborative film project involving faculty and undergraduates in the departments of History and Studio Art, screened at the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. A short review of the film was published in Artforum.
Interviews & Quotes
Sarah Milov’s interview with David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner, aired on CSPAN. Watch the program here.
Sarah Milov was interviewed by Jezebel about her new book, The Cigarette.
Neeti Nair was interviewed by the Telegraph India about the Ayodhya judgement and the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Max Edelson was interviewed by Forbes about Ken Fisher, dismissing the money manager's tweet arguing that slavery in the United States would have fallen on its own as “a fantasy."
Will Hitchcock was interviewed by UVAToday about the GAGE (Governing America in a Global Era) initiative and its mission.
Carrie Janney was interviewed in a USA Today article exploring the representation of slavery at some of the nation’s most celebrated historic sites and monuments.
Alan Taylor was interviewed in a Washington Post article about the brutal abuse endured by slaves at the University of Virginia.
Elizabeth Varon was interviewed by Voice of America about the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson for a segment offering historical context to the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump.
Justene Hill Edwards was quoted in a New York Times article about Attorney General Mark Herring’s recent announcement that couples in Virginia no longer need to declare their race as a requirement for a marriage certificate.
Carrie Janney was quoted in The Washington Post in an article about recent efforts to restore the historic Frederick Douglass cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.
Philip Zelikow was quoted in an article by James Fallows in The Atlantic and in a column by David Ignatius in The Washington Post.
Student and Graduate News
Amelia Wald, a recent graduate of our Distinguished Majors Program and former intern at the Nau Center for Civil War History, published a blog post that explores the wartime history of Charlottesville General Hospital.
DeAnza Cook, a recent graduate of our Distinguished Majors Program, participated in a panel (“Rethinking Police Power”) at the 104th Annual Meeting and Conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Graduate student Justin McBrien wrote an op-ed, “This Is Not the Sixth Extinction. It’s the First Extermination Event,” for Truthout.
Former graduate student Shira Lurie wrote an editorial in the Toronto Star that argues that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's “brownface” scandals are just a small part of a problem plaguing Canada.
Former graduate student Melissa Gismondi wrote about Prime Minister Trudeau in a recent New York Times editorial.