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istoríaV O L . 14, N O . 2 • NOVEMBER 2000

N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E U C S B H I S T O R Y A S S O C I A T E S

Alice Wows ‘Em!

Prof. Alice O'Connor gets the news.

PROF. ALICE O’CONNOR has been chosento receive the Academic Senate’s Harold J.Plous Memorial Award as the Outstand-ing Assistant Professor at UCSB.

O’Connor, who was promoted to asso-ciate professor this year, received the newsat a meeting of U. S. historians ostensiblycalled to discuss teaching needs.

Just as the meeting began, History ChairJack Talbott and a string of well-wishersburst in with the surprise announcement.

Prof. O’Connor then was escorted to ameeting of the Faculty Legislature, whereshe was formally presented with the award.

Physics Prof. Omer Blaes, chair of thePlous selection committee, described Prof.

O’Connor as a policy historian who works“effectively at the interstices of intellectual,institutional, cultural and political history.”

Her new book, Poverty Knowledge: SocialScience, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twenti-eth-Century U.S. History, “bridges the con-cerns of scholars and ordinary citizens,”Prof. Blaes said.

“UCSB is truly fortunate to have on itsfaculty someone who is on her way tobecoming a major voice in public discus-sions of social policy in the 21st century.”

This book was the subject of a talk Prof.O’Connor gave to the History Associateslast Spring.

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Channel CouldSee New OilSpill—Schuyler

200-Year-Old AdulteressPiques Plane's Interest

Prof. Ann Plane

A 300-YEAR-OLD tale of adultery will be thetopic on Thursday, Dec. 7 as History Prof.Anne Marie Plane reconstructs the story ofSarah Ahhaton for UCSB History Associ-ates at the Holiday Inn in Goleta, 5650Calle Real.

Ahhaton was an Algonquian Indian wholived in the Christian Indian town ofPunkapoag in Massachusetts in 1668.

Prof. Plane discovered her previouslyunknown confession to adultery while con-ducting research in the Massachusetts StateArchives in 1990.

The intriguing document set Prof. Planeon a path of discovery that, 10 years later,has resulted in her book, Colonial Intimacies:Indian Marriage in Early New England, pub-

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THE WORST IMAGINABLE accident in theSanta Barbara Channel would be a fullyladen oil tanker hitting a producing oilplatform, emeritus lecturer Barry Schuylertold an overflow crowd at the Octobermeeting of the UCSB History Associates.

Such a disaster would dwarf the 1969 oilspiill that helped jump-start the environ-mental movement, Schuyler warned.

And while chances of such a disasteractually occurring are only about one in amillion, he added, the consequences shouldit occur would be disastrous.

“The 1969 spill was a relatively smallone, but with different weather conditionseven that one could have spread as far asSan Diego,” he explained.

Santa Barbara was also fortunate thatthe 1969 spill did not catch fire, he said.

Schuyler, who is completing a disserta-tion on the risk analysis and mitigation ofoil spills, argued passionately for strictercontrols over the operation of oil tankers.

“The people who run them are over-loaded with work,” he explained. “We needhumane measures and more frequent in-spections to prevent the exhaustion thatfrequently is behind accidents at sea.”

Such prevention measures, he said, arefar more important than trying to predictthe likelihood of another spill.

Ironically, he said, shipwrecks are now

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Historía photo by John Majewski

2Published by the UCSB

History Associates

EditorHal Drake

Graduate EditorTom Sizgorich

istoríaVol. 14, No. 2 November • 2000

Prof. Blaes also called atten-tion to Prof. O’Connor’s inno-vative teaching in History 17C,the last quarter of the year-longlower-division survey of U. S.history, and the pivotal role sheplayed in putting together anall-UC conference in policy his-tory at UCSB, one result ofwhich was a new year-longcourse in policy history.

Prof. Blaes also noted thatProf. O’Connor is the first assis-tant professor ever to serve asvice chair of the History depart-ment.

History Chair Jack Talbottsaid he made the unprecedentedappointment because of the highregard her colleagues have forProf. O’Connor’s judgment andintegrity.

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O'Connor Wins Plous

Alice O'Connor poses with flower pot presented by fellow Americanists.

“I asked her to serve be-cause I knew I could count onher good sense, discretion, in-tegrity, fearlessness, and abil-ity to give good (and even un-welcome) advice,” he said.

Prof. O’Connor is the 43rdfaculty member to receive theaward, which was establishedin 1957 in memory of an assis-tant professor of economicswho died prematurely thatyear.

She is the seventh historianto win the award, giving His-tory the largest number of re-cipients in the College.

Previous winners were BobKelley (1962-3), Bill Bonadio(1967-8), Hal Drake (1976-7), Pat Cohen (1981-2), SarahCline (1986-7), and RandyBergstrom (1992-3).

Chair Jack Talbott (l.) shows commemorative plaque to Jo Beth and Don Van Gelderen.

Lansing Book WinsChurch History PrizePROF. CAROL LANSING’S newbook, Power and Purity: CatharHeresy in Medieval Italy, has beenawarded the Albert C. OutlerPrize of the American Societyof Church History.

The Outler Prize is awarded“to the author of the best bookpublished in the two previouscalendar years in ecumenicalchurch history,” defined as

MANY WARM THINGS were saidat the dedication of thedepartment’s graduate readingroom to Jo Beth and Don VanGelderen on Oct. 19. But, asusual, the best one-liner camefrom Jo Beth herself.

“I’m so nervous, it’s like get-ting married,” she said. Then,after a pause, “Worse, becausethis only happens once.”

She also came to the cer-emony with a gift of her own—a special edition of Monticelloand the Legacy of Thomas Jeffersonby Wendell Garrett.

The folio-sized book, whichthe Van Gelderens had previ-ously had on loan to librariesand museums for special ex-hibits, was produced by 18th

century methods in the formerCzechoslovakia in 1994 tocommemorate the 250th anni-versary of Jefferson's birth.

It features plates that werehand-inked and pulled and alinen and hand-tooled leathercover with gold-leaf type.

Jo Beth also presented thedepartment with two sets ofreference works—the Ency-clopedia of the Social Sciencesand the centennial edition ofthe Dictionary of AmericanBiography.

In his dedication remarks,History Chair Jack Talbotttook note of the impact theHistory Associates’ annual fel-lowship awards have had onthe department.

“And as we all know, themajor force behind this won-derful program has been theunflagging support and gener-osity of Jo Beth and Don VanGelderen.”

Before unveiling a perma-nent plaque that, along with abronze doorplate, formallyidentifies the new VanGelderen Room, Hal Drakecalled attention to the uniquenature of the honor being be-stowed—the first in thedepartment’s history.

“The best thing about this

books dealing with “problemsof Christian unity and disunity. . . or with interactions be-tween Christianity and otherreligious movements in any his-torical period.”

Prof. Lansing’s book, pub-lished by Oxford in 1998, is arichly detailed study of the roleof this important medieval her-

Van Gelderen Ceremony‘Just Like Getting Married’

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C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 5

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I thought the answer was well-known by now, butwe still get occasional idle inquiries about the accentmark on the title of this little rag. “Why is the accentmark of Historía on the ‘i’ instead of the ‘o,’ as it shouldbe in Spanish?” Inquiring minds want to know!

So I thought it would be a good idea to insert thequestion as a teaser in this year’s membership letter forthe History Associates. An unsuspecting Board wentalong with the idea. Join the Associates, the sentenceran, and find out about the accent mark.

We were deluged with responses (in newspaper talk,that means we got at least three). Some of them were

even cordial. Most, however, pointed outthat they already knew the answer. Asone respondent, who couldn’t wait for thevagaries of snail mail, shouted into thetelephone, “You are idiots!”

So, once more, for the record, here isthe story (abridged from volume 1, num-

ber 2 of Historía, published in April 1988):“Historía is a Greek word meaning ‘investigation’ or

‘research.’ It was used by Herodotus, the ‘Father ofHistory,’ at the start of his famous account of the Greekwars with Persia, written in the 5th century B. C.(‘These are the histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus. . .’), whence the name of our discipline.

“A nice name for a departmental newsletter, but notexactly imaginative," I wrote at the time. "The onlything Historía has going for it is that it isn’t ‘Clio.’Another name from the Greeks, ‘Clio’ was the Muse ofhistory, one of the nine traditional deities who super-vised all intellectual and creative activity.”

So now you know. And, just for the record, I want torepeat that it was not my first choice. In fact, in thatsame column I started a contest, lobbying hard for TheLoose Cannon (“local significance—Canon Perdido, theGoleta Beach cannons—with a dash of irreverence”).

The entries, announced in the next issue, were“Paseo Tiempo” (“Pathway of Time”) from RebeccaConard (PhD Brownlee, 1984), “Mnemosyne” (theGreek goddess of memory) from Katie Sibley (PhD,DeConde, 1991, still in grad school at the time), andone from Joe Leedom (PhD Hollister, 1979), unfit fora family newsletter.

Now, for a two-year membership, wanna knowwhere the phrase “It doesn’t make an iota of difference”comes from?

Hal DrakeEditor

E d i t o r ' s D e s k

An Iota of Difference

Curator Georgia Foz (lower right) points out details on Maritime Museum tour.

Dale Seborg tries Museum's periscope.

more dangerous to people onthe shore than they are to sail-ors.

Historically, residents nearshores that were hazardous toshipping looked forward toshipwrecks because they couldprofit from looting the wreck-age.

There were even instances,he said, where locals wereknown to have set up lanternsto lure unwary sailors ontoreefs.

"It's only in this century thatshipwrecks have not been ablessing to those on shore," hesaid. "Now, helicopters can savethe sailors while those on theland have to clean up the muck."

Yet in a recent decision theU. S. Supreme Court threw outthe State of Washington’s strongregulations on the grounds thatstates could not pre-empt fed-eral control, even though thosecontrols are much looser.

As a result of the decision, hesaid, California, Maine andMassachusetts have all retreatedfrom imposing stricter rules oftheir own.

Introduced by History As-sociates President PatrickO’Dowd as “one of SantaBarbara’s treasures,” Schuylerleft Associates with a somberthought:

“As long as humans design,regulate and operate oil plat-forms in the Channel, there isthe hazard of another spill.”

Prior to Schuyler's talk, As-sociates were treated to a guidedtour of the new Maritime Mu-seum by Executive DirectorEdward Cassano and CuratorGeorgia Fox, followed by a filmin the museum's state-of-the-art auditorium.

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‘Pilot Error’ Has MeaningIn Hazardous Channel

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LET USHEAR FROM

YOUIf you are a grad trying toget in touch with an oldclassmate, or a communitymember or alum with anarticle or story, why notdrop us a line?

Send your letters to:Editor, HistoríaDepartment of HistoryUniversity of CaliforniaSanta Barbara, CA 93106

President's Corner

These are amazing times. I find it remarkable that astoday’s big issues come into our ken, we automaticallyturn to history to focus our public discussion. Forexample, if we think back to our country’s recentpainful considerations of impeachment, we can think ofthe hundred academic “historians” who told us aboutimpeachment by telling us about the past. We learnedof the attempted impeachment of Justice Chase andPresident Johnson and much more. I don’t know about

you, but on this issue I was most im-pressed by the historical knowledge ofSen. Robert Byrd.

Now we find ourselves in an electionquandary of major proportions. To tryand solve this dilemma, we have turnedto an historical analysis of the origins anddevelopment of the electoral college

system. Likewise, we are studying historical cases likeRutherford Hayes or John Quincy Adams. In the caseof Adams, we learn that he was a minority vote getterwhose election was thrown to the House of Representa-tives and who was finally elected when he obtained thesupport of Henry Clay. Adams then promptly ap-pointed Clay as his Secretary of State. Adams’ oppo-nent Andrew Jackson and his forces called this a“corrupt bargain” and thereby doomed the Presidencyof J.Q. Adams and insured the election of Jackson in1828. Yes, we find history useful to think about.

As History Associates we are firm believers in thepublic value of history. In fact, you may know that theHistory Department has an important program inpublic history that forms graduate students for just thisspecial purpose. These new scholars are being trainedto bring historical awareness to public issues that willarise in their time. This program needs your support.

Ann Marie Plane, our next History Associatesspeaker, directs the department’s program in publichistory. She has just completed her book, ColonialIntimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England. In herbook signing and talk on Dec. 7, not only will we learnabout Algonquian New England but through the forceof her generalizations we will also focus our mindstoward a sharper vision of important considerations forour own Chumash community here in Santa Barbara.

Of course, the History Associates give you morethan just the idea that if you come to our talks you willlearn over and over again that history is useful. Withthe History Associates we also give you an opportunity

Amazing Times

action," he said, “is that Jo Bethand Don never gave the slight-est hint that they wanted any-thing in return for their gener-osity. In fact, for years theywouldn’t even let us acknowl-edge them at our annual awardsceremony.

“All of the initiative camefrom the department and theUniversity, and somehow thatmakes it all the more fitting.”

The dedication reads as fol-lows:

“This reading room is namedin honor of Jo Beth and DonVan Gelderen, longtime friendsof the History department andsponsors of the Van GelderenFellowship, whose annual chal-lenge grants significantly ad-vanced the graduate study ofhistory at UCSB. October 19,2000.”

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Van Gelderens

lished this year by CornellUniversity Press.

To celebrate the publication,a book-signing has been addedto the usual luncheon-lectureformat, according to HistoryAssociates President PatrickO’Dowd.

“Everyone remembers thewonderful talk on the origin ofThanksgiving that Ann Planegave us when she first came toUCSB,” he said.

“We jumped at the chanceto have her tell us about herbook, now that it is out.”

Following the trail left byAhhaton, Prof. Plane set out tolearn everything she couldabout the sexual, gender, andkin relations of the Algonquianpeoples of southern New En-gland during the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries.

She was particularly inter-ested in the effect of the En-

glish colonists’ institution ofmarriage on Native peoples.Did English marriage—with itscentral role in the social, eco-nomic, political and religiousrelations of early modern Eu-rope—play an important rolein the colonization of early NewEngland?

Prof. Plane argues that itdoes, but that the bonds forgedbetween Algonquian men andwomen would remain quite dis-tinctive even over the course oftwo centuries.

“These unusual bonds of ‘In-dian marriage’ played an im-portant role as both the meansof colonization and a mode ofresistance among the Indiansof New England,” she con-cluded.

“New England’s ‘forgottenpeoples’ can tell a fascinatingstory of personal and culturalsurvival, if only we can find thetools with which to listen,” shesays.

Reservations for the noontalk and luncheon, at $16 formembers and $18 for non-mem-bers, can be made through theUCSB Office of CommunityRelations, (805) 893-4388.

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Plane Will Sign BooksAt November Talk

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Demonstrating typical TA problems are (l. to r.): Anne Peterson, Jon Lemmond, John Coleman, Jason Kelly, and David Burden

esy in the Italian town ofOrvieto in the 13th century.

While orthodox Christiansemphasized the spiritual overthe physical, Cathars went fur-ther, denouncing all things onthis earth, including marriageand childbirth, as evil.

Based on extensive archi-val research, Power and Purityargues for a climate of populartoleration that contradictsmodern scholarly assumptionsabout persecution and intoler-ance in this period.

The ASCH was founded in1888 to encourage study of thehistory of Christianity and re-lated subjects across a broadspectrum of religious persua-sions and scholarly method-ologies.

Prof. Lansing came to theUCSB History Department inin 1995 from the University ofFlorida. This is her secondbook. The first, The FlorentineMagnates: Lineage and Faction ina Medieval Commune, was pub-lished by Princeton Univer-sity Press in 1991.

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Prof. Carol Lansing

Lansing Wins ASCH zPrize

TURNABOUT WAS INDEED fairplay at the department's firstteaching assistant training ses-sion of the year last month.

Numerous first-year and re-turning TAs participated in thesession on “Conflict Resolu-tion,” in which experienced TAsplayed the roles of students witheveryday problems that TAsoften encounter.

New TAs then attempted tosolve their students’ dilemmas.

Needless to say, with “stu-dents” like John Coleman andDavid Burden, the experiencewas far from everyday.

Taking on the personae oftheir favorite students from thepast, the TA actors gave Os-car-worthy performances as“The Close Talker” (JonLemmond), “The Litigator”

(David Burden, apologizingfor his appearance, but he “wason my way to a meeting withthe Fulbright committee”),“The Angry Goon” (JohnColeman, of course) and “TheApathetic Student” (DavidTorres-Rouff),

The relaxed atmospherecreated numerous innovativestrategies for dealing success-

fully with students’ needs.History TA Training Ses-

sions take place throughout theyear and will include sessionsthis year on several new topics.The TA Training Program hostsa website at http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~amp2.

Prof. Erika Rappaport isFaculty Coordinator of TATraining.

BY JASON KELLY

With Anne Peterson, JasonKelly is one of the department's twolead TAs this year.

Turnabout Is Fair Play as TAsAct Out Their Student Problems

THERE'S NO GUARANTEE, ofcourse, but UCSB HistoryPhDs do seem to be enteringthe corridors of power morefrequently these days.

In the aftermath of the ousterof Yugoslav President Slobo-dan Milosevic, Milan Protic(PhD Djordjevic, 1987) hasbeen elected as the reformistmayor of Belgrade.

Michael Burger (PhDHollister, 1991) has been pro-moted to the rank of Professorat Mississippi University forWomen, where he recentlycompleted a term as chair of theFaculty Senate.

In more traditional venues:Nancy Stockdale (Gallagh-

er) was a Visiting Fellow at aSeminar of the Working Groupon Modernity and Islam en-titled “History and Historiog-raphy: New Approaches andPerspectives,” at the Institutefor Advanced Study in Berlin.

Zuoyue Wang (PhDBadash, 1994) is serving as as-sistant professor at CaliforniaState Polytechnic University inPomona.

History GradsWalk the HallsOf Power

❏ Active $30❏ Corresponding 15

(Available to residents outsideof Santa Barbara County only)

❂In addition to my membership

dues, enclosed is:

❏ $25 to obtain a UCSB Library card

❏ $ gift to the History AssociatesGraduate Fellowship Fund.

❏ $ gift to the History AssociatesDick Cook Fund.

Gifts of $1,000 or more qualify for membership inthe Chancellor's Council.

❂

Name:

Address:

City/Zip/State:

Membership dues are tax deductible to theextent allowed by law. Gifts to the scholarshipfund are considered a charitable donation.

Please make your check payable to theUCSB History Associates and return it to:

UCSB Office of Community RelationsUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CA 93106-2100

Enclosed are my annual membership duesof $

istoríaNEWSLETTER OF THE UCSB HISTORY ASSOCIATES

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIASANTA BARBARA, CA 93106

Ready to Join?Another great year of UCSBHistory Associates' events isunder way. You'll want to keepposted about events in the His-tory Department as well. Torenew your membership or joinfor the first time, just fill outthis form and mail it with yourcheck or money order (payableto UCSB History Associates).

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDSanta Barbara

CaliforniaPermit No. 104

A Timely ’Reaper‘

SINCE HALLOWEEN coincidentally fellthe same day as the mid-term examfor the History 4A class he was TA-ing, medieval grad student MarkO'Toole decided to kill two birdswith one stone and come to class as'the Grim Reaper.' Students wereunfazed. When his students saw him,Mark said, "All they said was 'Coolcostume, dude!'"

to make a difference in the qualityof public discourse. Let me showyou how.

The Associates have developedfinancial support for public historystudents. Our Robert L. KelleyFellowship is awarded each year tothe outstanding graduate student inthe fields of US intellectual history,public history or the history ofpublic policy. If you believe thathistorical awareness strongly in-forms public policy, then you cansupport this idea and make a differ-ence by making a donation to thisparticular History Associates fund.

Or, after you listen to the talk, ifyou think Ann Marie Plane’s his-torical subject itself is of vitalimportance, then you might want tosupport outstanding graduatestudents in colonial, native Ameri-can, or frontier studies. To thisend, we give a Wilbur R. JacobsPrize to a graduate student everyyear. Support public history bysupporting these History Associatesfunds.

In any case, I know you willenjoy Ann Marie Plane’s talk. Seeyou there.

Patrick O’DowdPresident

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President‘s Column