Lawrence M. Lipin, Ph.D.
Professor
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Education
1989: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at University of California, Los Angeles, in History.
1981: Masters of Arts (MA) at University of California, Los Angeles, in History.
1978: Bachelor of Arts (BA) at University of California, Davis, in History.
Approach to History in the Classroom
On my better days, I teach students to appreciate history as an important means of coming to know what it is to be human, and to see that it provides perspectives into the way people create culture and society and, at the same time, are shaped by it. In my American history courses, students are encouraged to think about the relationships between cultural belief systems and the structures of social organization and power that people form and live under. Students learn to think about the intentions and results of human activity in the past and the degree to which individuals and groups are able to control and shape their destinies. Rather than as a clear instrument for future action, I teach students to see history as an opportunity to come to understand how our historical predecessors have struggled--sometimes successfully, sometimes less so, sometimes in ways that we are proud of, sometimes in ways that we would like to disown--to shape the world in their image.
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Current Research Interests
I am engaged in two current research projects, and they move in different chronological directions. The first examines a subject dealt with in my recent book, the splintering of radical producerists in the early 1920s by cultural and religious strains. In this case, I am examining the career of a woman journalist, Eleanor F. Baldwin, whose career trajectory began with a column in a daily Portland newspaper in which she fouced on women's contributions to civillization and questions of gender equity. After losing her affiliation with the newspaper, Baldwin produced anti-bank, pro-labor currency tracts during the era of World War One, after which she began to write anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant articles, some of which were published in the labor press, but as time progressed they appeared in the Oregon Ku Klux Klan newspaper.
The other project is more national in scope, and it moves back to the nineteenth century, where my earlier work was centered. This is an exploration into the relationship between the nineteenth-century land reform tradition (which had mild manifestations in the Homestead Act of 1862) and the early emergence of a conservation ethic in the era following the Civil War. I am currently interested in the personal papers and published work of the highly popular radical political economist, Henry George, who ran a strong campaign for the mayor's office in New York City in 1886. George's chief contribution to radical politics was the "single tax" which aimed to socialize land values and force land into production or back into the public domain, a policy that reflected the attachment that working-class radicals had to putting resources into production and limiting speculation and monopoly.
Select Publications
Books
Workers and the Wild: Conservation, Consumerism, and Labor in Oregon, 1910-1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Producers, Proletarians, and Politicians: Workers and Party Politics in Evansville and New Albany, Indiana, 1850-87. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Articles
“‘Cast Aside the Automobile Enthusiast’”: Class Conflict, Tax Policy, and the Preservation of Nature in Progressive-Era Oregon,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 107 (Summer 2006), 64-93. Read the article here.
“‘Burying the Destroyer of One Happy Home’: Industrial Authority, Manhood, and Constituency Building in the Murder Trial of Ira Strunk,” Journal of Social History 28 (Summer 1995), 783-800.
“‘There will not be a Mechanic Left’: The Battle Against Unskilled Labor in the San Francisco Harness Making Trade, 1880-90,” Labor History 35 (Spring 1994), 216-236.
Professional Work
Professional Affiliations & Service
Member, Oregon Historical Quarterly Editorial Advisory Board, 2006-present
Member, Awards Committee, Sterling Fellowships in Pacific Northwest History, Oregon Historical Society, Fall 2001-present
Reader, AP United States History Exam, Educational Testing Service, June 2004, 2005
Delivered “Racial Categories and Natural Rights in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence” and led discussion in a public session at the Oregon Historical Society as part of visiting Declaration of Independence exhibit, September 22, 2003
Select Presentations
“The Paved Road to Wilderness Preservation: Class, Nature and Leisure in Pre-New Deal Oregon,” delivered at Portland State University, May 10, 2007.
“The Paved Road to Wilderness,” delivered at University of Portland, James Connelly Lecture Series, March 26, 2007.
“Toward Wilderness: Class Conflict, Leisure, and William Finley’s Commitment to Wildlife Preservation, 1912-1935,” delivered at Lewis and Clark Symposium on Environmental Affairs, October 3, 2007.
Honors and Awards
2007: Oregon Historical Society’s Palmer Award for best article on Oregon Historical Quarterly
2005: Pacific University Faculty Development Grant
2004: Pacific University Seniors Trombly Faculty Award
1999: Pacific University Summer Research Fellowship
1995: Pacific University John H. Meyer Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
1995: University of Illinois Press Book Nomination for Philip Taft Labour History Prize
1994: University of Illinois Press Book Award Nomination for Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association
Courses that I teach....
At Pacific University, all faculty teach a variety of different courses. Typically, we do not use graduate teaching assistants, which means that your classes will be taught by professors and that you will have plenty of opportunites to get to know the faculty in your discipline.
Below, I have listed some of the courses that I teach. We are always developing and trying out new classes, so the list may change now and then. You can use the links to the left to read descriptions of the courses listed below.
| HUM | 100 | FYS: Origins, Identity, and Meaning |
| HIST | 141 | American History to 1865 |
| HIST | 243 | American West: History, Memory, and Film |
| HIST | 245 | Race and Culture in American History |
| HIST | 341 | American Revolution and Constitution |
| HIST | 342 | Civil War and Reconstruction |
| HIST | 343 | Industrialization, Labor, & The State in America |
| HIST | 345 | Gender & Sexuality in Victorian America |
| HIST | 441 | Environmental History |
| HIST | 490 | Senior Seminar |