Early American/Colonial History
Early American history at the University of Illinois explores America's place in a transatlantic, multicultural Atlantic world. British colonization in eastern North America and the Caribbean brought European, Native American, and African cultures into constant conflict and interaction. Regular graduate courses in this field explore early America from this transatlantic perspective as a dymanic early modern place rather than as a prelude to later United States history.
Max Edelson, who specializes in the economic, environmental, and cultural history of Britain's American plantation colonies, offers graduate courses that explore major early American regions (the Chesapeake, New England, Caribbean, Middle Colonies, Lower South, and "Backcountry") as well as important themes and topcis such as material culture, race and African slavery, and the ideological background to the American Revolution.
Frederick Hoxie specializes in Native American history. He teaches a two-semester survey course on the history of Native Americans as well as upper level courses in American Indian law, "Natives and Newcomers" (a comparative look at indigenous peoples and European expansion), and other special topics. He regularly offers graduate seminars in Native American history and ethnohistorical approaches to the past. He also teaches undergraduate survey courses in U.S. history.Other faculty members in the department who specialize in complementary and related fields include Vernon Burton (U.S. South), Frederic Jaher (U.S. social history), Antoinette Burton (British empire), and Dana Rabin (Eighteenth-century British and legal history).
The University's library boasts one of the most extensive collections of any research library in the country, and its holdings in American history, particularly in newspapers and early modern rare books published in Britain and America, make it an ideal resource for graduate students embarking on major research projects.