Brian C. Etheridge
Assistant Professor of History
Brian C. Etheridge joined the Louisiana Tech University faculty in 2002, after receiving his PhD in history from the Ohio State University. Dr. Etheridge is a specialist in recent American history, U.S. foreign relations history, and German history. He serves as Director of the Honors Program at Louisiana Tech and Research Director of the American Foreign Policy Center. His research has appeared in journals such as Diplomatic History and the Journal of Popular Film and Television. He is busy revising his manuscript for publication. He holds the John D. Winters Endowed Professorship and serves as the Roster and Research List Coordinator for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
Email: Dr. Etheridge
Office: GTM 114
Phone: (318) 257-5253
CURRICULUM VITAE
COURSES
| History 201 |
This course traces the early history of the area that now comprises the continental United States, from its settlement by its original inhabitants to a devastating Civil War that almost destroyed the Union that came to govern it. This class seeks to help students understand the central issues and concerns facing early Americans and how these issues and concerns were ultimately resolved. |
| History 202 |
This course is designed to cover the history of American civilization from the Civil War to the present day. It seeks to assist students in understanding how the United States emerged from the ashes of a ravaging civil war to occupy a place of unequalled supremacy in the modern world, and what consequences that rise to superpower status has had on American social, cultural, and political life. In doing so, this course examines how central themes such as industrialization, consumerism, urbanization, and global expansion have developed throughout this time period. |
| History 402 |
History of American Foreign Policy: It has now been several years since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and, for many, victory in the war against terror appears no closer than it did in those terrifying and sobering days right after the fall of the twin towers. Mired in two on-going military engagements and suffering through a bitter, partisan political climate, America's polarized electorate is struggling to find answers for the international environment of the 21st century. Bearing this in mind, it is clear that our class could not come at a more appropriate time. Now is the perfect moment to take stock and revisit the roots, course, and history of American foreign relations. This course covers the last 225 years of American foreign policy, examining the domestic, cultural, and international factors involved in the rise of the United States from a colony to superpower. During the course of this review it is hoped that students will come to some of their own conclusions regarding how we got where we are, where we should go, and how we should get there. |
| History 408 |
Hitler's Germany: Don't let the title of this course fool you. While the study of the Third Reich will occupy a significant portion of this course, this class is not devoted exclusively to the Nazi period. Rather, the title of course has a double meaning, and both involve the Third Reich but are not centered wholly on it. On one hand, the title alludes to the dominant interpretive thrust of modern German history—that is, understanding how Germany's past created conditions that enabled the rise of Hitler. On the other, it suggests the historical slant most historians of post-1945 Germany have taken—that being how the German governments and people have coped with the legacy of the Third Reich. This class, then, is really a modern German history class that illustrates the hold that Hitler has had and continues to have on understanding Germany's past, present, and future. |
| History 466 |
Contemporary America: During World War II, Henry Luce, the editor of Time magazine, published a famous editorial in which he hailed the 20th century as the "American century" because of America's predominant power in the world, and called on Americans to take up the responsibility commensurate with such power. During the course of this class, we will examine what life has been like for Americans living during the last six decades and wrestle with the meaning and implications of Henry Luce's characterization. |
| History 490 |
Mass Media in American History: This course examines the role of mass media in American history, stressing the importance of technological innovation, ownership, government control, social response, and cultural functions to gaining a complete understanding of how media has both shaped and been shaped by American society. |
| History 505 |
Introduction to Historical Research and Writing: This course is designed to introduce you to the professional practice of history. As such, it will emphasize a number of important aspects. First, on a philosophical level, the course will familiarize you with the problems plaguing any investigation of the "past," many of which revolve around the difficult relationships between the past, historical evidence, and the individual historian. Second, on a more practical level, the course will introduce you to the technique of research, stressing the importance of both secondary and primary resources to any study. Third, the course will underscore the importance of clear writing. Fourth, and perhaps most foremost, this course is designed to introduce you to graduate student life. |
| History 528 |
Seminar in American Foreign Relations: This course is designed to familiarize students with the practice of American foreign relations history. As you will no doubt discover, the subdiscipline has undergone quite a transformation in the past few years, with the result being that our understanding of the complexity of international relations has been enhanced and our once comfortable notions about how states interact challenged. By the end of the course, you will have an appreciation for and understanding of the large number of approaches developed to understand the history of American foreign relations. |
| Honors 204 |
Foundations of American Civilization: In this course, we will use popular fiction as a way to explore culture and society throughout American history. Because this course is taught by a historian, we will examine these bestsellers as primary sources, not as transcendent works of art. In other words, we will interrogate these literary texts to find out what they reveal about the time period in which they were created. Throughout the course we will revisit the same kinds of questions. Why were these books bestsellers? As bestsellers are they somehow reflective of their time period? What themes seem to recur in American popular fiction and how might these themes be tied to a material reality? What larger interpretive threads can we discern in American history through an investigation of its literary bestsellers? |
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