History

History faculty

Douglas W. Carlson

Associate Dean of Global Education
Professor of History

Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
M.A., Colorado State University
B.A., Seattle Pacific University

Profile

Dr. Carlson, whose specialty is American history, also heads Northwestern's Global Education Center, overseeing off-campus study. He taught full-time in the history department for 10 years before academic administration was added to his responsibiities. His historical work has focused on antebellum America, particularly temperance and other social reform movements, as well as the Civil War. He also teaches America and the Vietnam War, overseeing a veterans' oral history project.

The Global Education Center features college semester programs in Romania and Oman, which Dr. Carlson helped establish, and faculty-led summer study abroad programs. Prior to coming to Northwestern, Dr. Carlson taught at The King's College in New York.

Courses
Publications and presentations
Professional experience
Memberships

Courses

Western Civilization to 1789
Western Civilization to 1789
This course acquaints students with the major periods and contours of Western Civilization from its roots in the ancient Near East through its development in the 18th century Enlightenment. Among the topics treated are the medieval centuries and the eras of the Renaissance and the Reformation.(4 credits)
Issues in Western Civilization from 1789
Issues in Western Civilization from 1789
The sections of this companion course to HIS101 provide students with thematic investigations of issues prominent in Western Civilization since the 18th century (e.g., political, intellectual, popular culture, technological, military, colonial/imperial, racial/ethnic, gender, environmental, etc.).Prerequisite: HIS101.(2 credits)
History of the United States to 1865
History of the United States to 1865
This is a study of the early history of our national existence, from colonial beginnings through the Civil War. The emphasis is on those influences which have been most formative in shaping American society.(4 credits)
History of the United States from 1865
History of the United States from 1865
This surveys developments from 1865 to the present with the focus being upon the transformation of the U.S. into a modern urban-industrial society and its emergence as a 20th century world power.(4 credits)
Issues in Cross-Cultural History
Issues in Cross-Cultural History
4
Issues in American History
Issues in American History
A topical and selective study in American history providing the opportunity to focus on a particular era or issue important to the understanding of the American past. Topics will vary according to professor and student interest. Sample topics have included Cold War America, The Sixties, and History of American Women.Prerequisite: HIS101.(2 credits)
Topics in American History
Topics in American History
A topical and selective study of issues and/or people or trends in American history of special significance to our national development.Prerequisites: HIS201 and 202, or permission of instructor.(4 credits, alternate years, consult department)
Civil War and Reconstruction
Civil War and Reconstruction
This course examines the nature of the antebellum North and South, slavery in the Old South, the growth of sectional tension, the nature and course of the war, the process of reconstructing the Union, and the impact of this era on the course of American history.Prerequisites: HIS101 and 102, HIS201 or 202 is recommended, or permission of instructor.(4 credits, alternate years, consult department)

Publications and presentations

“‘Drinks he to his own Undoing’:Temperance Ideology in the Deep South,” Journal of the Early Republic 18 (Winter, 1998), pp. 659-691.
"The Broken Bonds of Christian Unity: Slavery, Abolition, and the Churches in Antebellum America," Transparant (quarterly for the Dutch Association of Christian Historians), Fall, 1995)
"'The religious element is the life of beneficent action': Antebellum Churches and the Temperance Reform in the Deep South," Paper read at the annual convention of the Organization of American Historians, Louisville, April, 1991
"The Ideology of Southern Temperance," Paper read at the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Charlottesville, Virginia, July, 1989
"Discovering Their Heritage: Women and the American Past" in Gender Matters: Women's Studies for the Christian Community, edit. by June Steffensen Hagen, Zondervan Publishing House, (1990)
“American Temperance Societies (United States)” in Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics, Volume One: A-K, edit. Roy P. Domenico & Mark Y. Hanley, Greenwood Press, 2006, pp.17-20.
“The Temperance Movement,” The Dictionary of American History 10 volumes, 3rd edition, Stanley I. Kutler, Editor in Chief, Charles Scribner’s Sons, (2003),Vol. 8, pp. 78-81.