Teaching — Graham A. Peck: Historian & Filmmaker

United States history to 1877 & from 1877

My surveys of the United States are designed to introduce students to historical thinking and interpretation, and consequently delve deeply into specific episodes of American history, such as Puritan childhood, 18th-century indentured servants, the psychology of Andrew Jackson, or the role of Eleanor Roosevelt. Above all, I seek to teach students how history shapes almost every facet of their lives, from the deeply personal aspects of language, identity, and community to the impersonal but profoundly important characteristics of global trade, culture, and wealth distribution. To begin to think historically is to wonder at the origins of things; to learn how to arrive at an answer is a profound gift.

Illinois history

The history of my adopted state provides a window from which to view the broader contours of American history. Illinois' early history, like that of the country more broadly, was characterized by thousands of years of Indian settlement that was altered radically by the arrival of Europeans; in the case of Illinois, by the arrival of French explorers in 1673, who carried guns, germs, and crosses, and whose compatriots soon settled in what is now southern Illinois. Almost a century later, in 1763, the British wrested Illinois from the French at the conclusion of the Seven Years War, but they only held it for twenty years before plucky Americans under the Kentucky militia commander George Rogers Clark took it from them during the Revolutionary War. American frontiersman began pouring into Illinois about thirty years later, after the War of 1812 crushed Indian resistance to American expansion, and in 1818 Congress admitted the rapidly growing territory to statehood. Settled initially by slaveholders, it nearly became a slave state, and many of its residents remained sympathetic to the South well into the Civil War.

In the wake of the war, the state's modern history began with the epic rise of Chicago, which emerged from the mud into one of the world's greatest cities in only fifty years. By 1893, the city hosted the world's fair, representing--to its Chicago boosters--the pinnacle of progress. It certainly represented the combined influence of immigration and industrialization, which had reshaped the city into a polyglot democracy that co-existed uneasily with one of the world's great engines of capitalism. In this regard, Chicago aptly represented the nation.

Since that time, the Great Migration, the Great Depression, World War II, suburbanization, white flight, the political upheaval of the 1960s, industrial decay, and heavy Hispanic migration have continued to shape the city's history, as they have the country, and particularly its urban core. The post-Civil War history of the city is in large measure the history of American industrialization, post-industrialization, and contemporary globalization, and the future success and prosperity of Illinois rests largely on Chicago's ability to remain a dynamic hub of industry, commerce, and ideas in the century to come.

The Historian’s Craft

The Historian’s Craft is the gateway to the discipline for majors. In addition to intensive training in disciplinary methods and historiography, students write a research paper on a common subject. In the current iteration of the course, students assess the life and death of printer Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Illinois’ famous abolitionist martyr. Motivated by his Christian beliefs, Lovejoy published antislavery editorials in the Alton Observer and helped to organize the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society. Many of Alton’s residents considered him an incendiary who was recklessly endangering the Union. They destroyed three of his presses within 18 months of his arrival in Alton. When he procured a fourth, in November 1837, they shot him to death, broke up the press, and threw the pieces into the Mississippi River. He was the first journalist to die defending the constitutional right to publish freely in America.

Students are tasked with interpreting one key question: why did Lovejoy persist in his course despite the profound personal risks to himself and his family? To answer it, they read his letters and editorials, the transcripts of the trials held after his burial, the memoir edited by his brothers, and a number of other primary and secondary sources. If you want to take a crack, start with his letters and experience the challenge of deciphering nineteenth-century handwriting. It is not as risky as publishing abolitionist editorials in 1837, but it is not for the faint of heart!

Freedom National

Freedom National is a research seminar that intensively explores the process of emancipation during the Civil War. James Oakes' prize-winning book Freedom National is the base text for the course. Oakes argues that the Republican Party, deeply shaped by hostility to slavery, pushed for emancipation from the inception of the war until passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Civil War scholars generally have not made that case, instead contending that emancipation emerged as a war aim after two bloody years of conflict had radicalized the northern public. Hence the students' job is to investigate some aspect of emancipation during the Civil War, delving deeply into the relevant scholarly literature, in order to understand and interpret a disputed point among scholars. Understanding how to comb through and use what historians already have written about the past--the history of history, if you will--is essential for any scholar who hopes to say something new. This course therefore prepares students for advanced work in the discipline--while also giving them a window seat as they traverse the harrowing and sometimes heroic landscapes of the American Civil War!

Lincoln's New Salem. Photo Courtesy National Park Service. — **Lincoln's New Salem**. Photo Courtesy National Park Service.

Investigating Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Memorial. Photo Courtesy Library of Congress. — **Lincoln Memorial**. Photo Courtesy Library of Congress.

In this fun-filled May Term travel course, students and I visited Lincoln shrines in Springfield, where Honest Abe made his home from 1837 to 1861. In addition to reading and discussing books on Lincoln, we visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, the Lincoln Tomb, the Old State Capitol, the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices, the Lincoln Home, and New Salem, a small village where Lincoln lived for six years before relocating to Springfield, twenty miles away. The disparity between the frontier village and the Lincoln Memorial was the focus of the class. How did Lincoln become the Lincoln we remember? As an additional treat, we enjoyed a guided tour of the current State Capitol by State Senator Edward Maloney, who pointed out the plush Senate seat that once had belonged to President Barack Obama, another man who rose from obscurity, entered politics as an Illinois legislator, and then as a dark horse candidate claimed the American presidency.

Historical documentary filmmaking

I taught Historical Documentary Filmmaking with my former colleague Nathan Peck, Professor of Art & Design at Saint Xavier University. Students enrolled in my history and his art courses simultaneously. No training in history or film was required, but by the end of the semester each student made their own five-minute documentary, having learned the process step-by-step. Photography, video and audio production, the Adobe software suite--they learned it all! And they learned how to find and use historical evidence, how to distill historical narratives into script, and how to locate historical images that turned the past into a visual feast for their viewers. The students’ films focused on Saint Xavier University's history and can be found here. For Nathan's webpage, click here.

Modern Japan

One of my favorite courses to teach at Saint Xavier, Modern Japan was a whirlwind tour through the remarkable history of a fascinating country. A proudly independent people who have borrowed much from others, the Japanese have fashioned a culture that foreigners have long found intriguing. Americans have shared a special relationship with Japan since the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853, who forcibly opened the country to trade with the West. The course focused on the subsequent and astonishingly rapid rise of Japan from a premodern society to a world power, but it also paid special attention to Japanese culture, which remains vibrant today. One of the great boons of teaching Japanese history is that it invites a comparative analysis of American and Japanese culture, illuminating the degree to which individual behavior is shaped by broader social practice rooted in historical experience. For superb visual material on Japanese history and culture that I used in my teaching, immerse yourself in MIT's Visualizing Cultures, an outstanding resource produced by leading scholars of Asian history, most notably the eminent scholar of Japan, John Dower.

Senior seminar

The capstone course for seniors at Saint Xavier was always incredibly interesting to teach. By the end of the semester, students produced a 20 to 25 page research paper based on primary sources. The course design was simple: students asked a question that intrigued them, and then they hit the archives hard. My job was to give them advice as they morphed into junior historians. Having the opportunity to watch them develop as scholars was a true pleasure, as was seeing them embrace the challenge of writing history from the scraps left from the past. In the end, most students found the course to be the most demanding course they had ever taken--and also their most rewarding academic experience in college.