Deborah L. Kisatsky, Ph.D

Education

Ph.D. History, University of Connecticut, 2001

M.A. History, University of Connecticut, 1993

B.A. English/History, University of Connecticut, 1990 (magna cum laude)

 

Faculty Appointments

Assumption University, Associate Professor of History, 2007-

Assistant Professor of History, 2001-2007

University of Connecticut, Lecturer in History, 1996-2001

Teaching Assistant in History, 1991-1996

 

Scholarship

Current Project

“Adin Ballou: A Nineteenth-Century Life.” A book-length study of the life and transnational legacy of the American pacifist, communitarian, and social reformer Adin Ballou (in progress).

 

Books

Monograph

The United States and the European Right, 1945-1955 (Columbus: Ohio State University 

Press, 2005; paperback 2016). Comparative study of U.S. policy toward a spectrum of rightist individuals and political parties in Germany, France, and Italy during the first decade of the Cold War. Researched in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Canada and in published U.S., German, British, French, Canadian, and Italian primary and secondary sources.

Textbook

American Foreign Relations: A History, 2 vols., 8th ed., with Thomas G. Paterson, J. 

Garry Clifford, Robert Brigham, Michael Donoghue, Kenneth Hagan, and Shane J. Maddock (Stamford: Cengage, 2015). Prior contributions and authorship are retained and credited in this edition.

American Foreign Relations: A History, 2 vols., 7th ed., with Thomas G. Paterson, J. 

Garry Clifford, Kenneth Hagan, and Shane J. Maddock (Stamford: Cengage, 2010). Completely revised and updated chapters on the 1940s-1950s and 1980s-90s as part of a major overhaul of both volumes; enhanced emphasis on race, culture, gender, and revolutionary nationalism; added a new “What If?” counterfactual feature to authored chapters; jointly reviewed and edited both volumes and all citations in their entirety. Stepped down from the project following publication.

American Foreign Relations: A History, Brief Edition, 2 vols., with Thomas G. Paterson, J. Garry Clifford, Shane J. Maddock, and Kenneth Hagan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006). A shortened version of the sixth edition of the textbook.

American Foreign Relations: A History, 2 vols., 6th ed., with Thomas G. Paterson, J. Garry Clifford, Shane J. Maddock, and Kenneth Hagan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005). Carried out a substantial revision of fifth edition chapter on the early Cold War; jointly reviewed and edited both volumes and all citations in their entirety.

 

Articles and Chapters

“Mohandas Gandhi” and “Leo Tolstoy” in Opposition to War: An Encyclopedia of 

United States Peace and Antiwar Movements, ed. Mitchell K. Hall (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2018), 279-81 and 643-45.

“Chapter 1: Reference Works, Bibliographies, Overviews, and Syntheses,” in: 

The SHAFR Guide Online, General Editor Alan McPherson (Boston: Brill, 2017).

“‘Such a Time: Globalization through the Prism of Gender,” with Regina Edmonds, Connections: Newsletter of the National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education, 16:1 (Fall 2008), 12-13.

“The United States, the French Right, and American Power in Europe, 1945-1958,” The Historian 65:2 (Spring 2003), 615-41.

“Voice of America and Iran, 1949-1953: U.S. Liberal Developmentalism, Propaganda and the Cold War,” Intelligence and National Security 14:3 (Autumn 1999), 168-93.

“Keeping the Lights Lit in Bonn: A Former Humboldtian’s Perspective after the Move,” Humboldt News: The Newsletter of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America, 2:2/3:1(1999), 12-13, 16.

“David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce,” “Robert M. Gates,” “Henry Francis Grady,” “Edward Lansdale,” “Mayaguez Incident,” “Pueblo Incident,” and “Robert Schuman,” in The Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations, eds. Bruce W. Jentleson and Thomas G. Paterson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 184, 202, 230, 38-39, 118, 447, and 63.

 

Book Reviews

Frank Costigliola and Michael J. Hogan, eds., Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), H-Diplo Roundtable Review, 19:4 (25 September 2017) at https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/308611/h-diplo-roundtable-xix-4-explaining-history-american-foreign.

Elliot A. Rosen, The Republican Party in the Age of Roosevelt: Sources of Anti-Government Conservatism in the United States (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014), Presidential Studies Quarterly 45:3 (September 2015), 627-28.

Joan Maria Thomàs, Roosevelt, Franco, and the End of the Second World War (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), American Historical Review 117:4 (October 2012), 1196.

Steven J. Brady, Eisenhower and Adenauer: Alliance Maintenance under Pressure, 1953–1960 (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010), American Historical Review 117:1 (February 2012), 171-72.

Michael Kimmage, The Conservative Turn: Lionel Trilling, Whittaker Chambers, and the Lessons of Anti-Communism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), Reviews in American History 38:2 (June 2010), 343-348.

Paul T. Burlin, Imperial Maine and Hawai’i: Interpretive Essays in the History of Nineteenth-Century American Expansion (New York: Lexington Books, 2006), NEHA News: The Newsletter of the New England Historical Association 23:1 (April 2008), 12-13. 

David Ciepley, Liberalism in the Shadow of Totalitarianism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), American Historical Review 113:1 (February 2008), 219-20.

Nils Gilman, Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), Journal of Interdisciplinary History 37:4 (Spring 2007), 649-50.

James H. Critchfield, Partners at the Creation: The Men behind Postwar Germany’s Defense and Intelligence Establishments (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003), Journal of Cold War Studies 8:2 (2006), 154-156.

Thomas A. Breslin, Beyond Pain: The Role of Pleasure and Culture in the Making of Foreign Affairs (Westport: Praeger, 2002), Journal of Interdisciplinary History 33:4 (Spring 2003), 595-96.

David A. Reynolds, From Munich to Pearl Harbor: Roosevelt’s America and the Origins of the Second World War (New York: Ivan R. Dee, 2001), Presidential Studies Quarterly 32:3 (September 2002), 620-22.

 

Presentations

“‘We Must Somehow Get Rid of Ourselves’: Self and Self-Sacrifice in the Spiritual Pacifism of Adin Ballou, Leo Tolstoy, and Mohandas Gandhi,” Phi Alpha Theta Lecture, Assumption College, 6 April 2016.

“Pacifists in Turmoil: The Inner Struggles of Adin Ballou, Leo Tolstoy, and Mohandas Gandhi,” Peace History Society Biennial Conference, University of St. Joseph, West Hartford, Connecticut, 23 October 2015.

Roundtable Panelist, “You Do Make a Difference: A Professional Development Conference for Academic Affairs Administrative Assistants,” Sponsored by the Chief Academic Officers Committee of the Colleges of the Worcester Consortium, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, 10 November 2011 (invited).

Chair and Commentator, “The Biographer’s Art: Bloomsbury and Before,” Northeast Conference on British Studies, 42nd Annual Meeting, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, 29 October 2011 (invited).

“September 11: Ten Years After,” Presentation to Students of the Living and Learning Center, Assumption College, 11 September 2011.

“Prism on America: Adin Ballou’s Hopedale, 1841-1856 – A Unit of Study for Grades 9-12,” Lecture to Worcester Area Teachers through the Teaching American History Grant of the Organization of American Historians, Hopedale, Massachusetts, 4 August 2010 (invited).

“Tragedy and Transcendence: Adin Ballou’s Hopedale,” Phi Alpha Theta Lecture, Assumption College, 10 April 2010.

“The Tragedy of Adin Ballou,” Public Lecture Sponsored by the Friends of Adin Ballou, Hopedale, Massachusetts, 20 September 2009 (invited).

“Globalization through the Prism of Gender” (with Dr. Regina Edmonds), Conference of the National Association of Women in Catholic Higher Education, St. John’s University, New York, New York, 7 June 2008.

“The United States and the European Right,” Phi Alpha Theta Lecture, Assumption College, 10 November 2005.

“Fog and Friction: Reading Clausewitz—and History,” Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, National Archives II, College Park, Maryland, 25 June 2005 (invited).

Panelist, “The Draft and the Iraq War,” Assumption College, 19 April 2005.

“The United States, the German Right, and American Hegemony in Europe, 1945-1955,” Foreign Policy Seminar, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 1 October 2004 (invited).

“Training for D-Day: The CIA, the U.S. Army, and the Bund Deutscher Jugend,” Conference of the Society for Military History, Bethesda, Maryland, 21 May 2004 (invited).

“Containing German Nationalism: The Otto Strasser Affair, 1945-1955,” Hall Humanities Center Seminar in Peace, War, and Global Change, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 12 March 2004 (invited).

“Sabotage, Scandal, and Stay-Behind Nets: The BDJ Affair and U.S. Anticommunism in West Germany,” Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 7 June 2003.

“The War in Iraq: Panel Discussion,” Assumption College, 26 March 2003.

“What Does It Mean to Be an American?” 9/11 Memorial Event, Assumption College, 11 September 2002.

“The Allies, Otto Strasser and the Nationalist-Neutralist Challenge to German Democratization, 1945-1955,” Conference of the Organization of American Historians, Los Angeles, 26 April 2001. 

Panelist, “War, Just War, and More War: A Symposium on the Morality of the ‘War’ on Terror,” Assumption College, 10 April 2002.

“Communication Technologies, Surrogate Broadcasters, and International Politics: The Cold War and Beyond” (Panelist), Center for European Studies Spring Seminar on Globalization in Emerging Economies, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 12 March 2001. 

“Taming Right-wing Nationalism in France,” Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, National Archives II, College Park, Maryland, 18 June 1998.

“Voice of America and Iran, 1949-1953: U.S. Liberal Developmentalism, Cultural Diplomacy, and the Cold War,” Conference of the New England Historical Association, St. Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire, 28 October 1995.

 

Manuscript Reviews 

Journal of American History (2013)

New England Journal of History (2014)

 

Courses Taught

Seminar: American Pacifists

Pro-Seminar: Pacifists in World History

History of the Cold War

9/11 in History and Memory

The Vietnam War

American Foreign Relations since 1776

American Radicals

Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies

Introduction to Women’s Studies

Women of the World

From the Cold War to the War on Terror: Teaching American History (TAH) Graduate Seminar for Worcester Area Teachers 

United States: Gilded Age through World War II: Teaching American History (TAH) Graduate Seminar for Worcester Area Teachers 

United States History, Parts 1 and 2

West and the World, Parts 1 and 2

Modern Europe and the United States, Parts 1 and 2

 

Awards and Honors

Fellow, Senior Leadership Academy, sponsored by the Council of Independent 

Colleges and the American Academic Leadership Institute, 2018-19

Fellow, Leadership Development Program for Faculty, Sponsored by the Chief 

Academic Officers Committee of the Colleges of the Worcester Consortium, 2012-13 

Instructional Technology Mini-Grant, Assumption College, Spring 2011

Faculty Development Grants, Assumption College, 2005, 2006, 2009

Stuart Bernath Dissertation Grant of the Society for Historians of American Foreign 

Relations (SHAFR), 1999

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor’s) Scholarship 

for Year-Long Study in Germany, 1998-99

Junior Fellowship, Center for European Integration Studies, University of Bonn, 1998-99

Myrna F. Bernath Research Fellowship of SHAFR, 1997-98

Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Lubin-Winant Fellowship, 1996

Harry S. Truman Library Institute Research Grant, 1996

University of Connecticut Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 1996

University of Connecticut Predoctoral Fellowships, 1995-99

Edward Victor Gant Memorial Scholarship, 1995

Michael L. Dunphey Memorial Scholarship, 1995

Connecticut 350th Celebration Scholarship, 1994

Robert W. Lougee Predoctoral Fellowship, 1993-95

University of Connecticut Summer Fellowships, 1992-1994, 1996, 1997, 2000 

Roger Sherman Predoctoral Fellowship, 1991-93

Connecticut 350th Celebration Scholarship, 1991

Phi Betta Kappa, 1991