About the Political Science Department History Project
Origins of the History Project, by Crawford Young
As the centennial of the Department of Political Science approached, Clara Penniman suggested that a history of the Department should be undertaken, and provided a generous contribution to make the project possible. After some delay in defining ways and means of implementation of this design, Mark Beissinger in fall 2001 formed a committee of emeritus faculty to move the project forward. In March 2002, Crawford Young agreed to assume responsibility for this task, with Leon Epstein and Booth Fowler serving as a steering committee to provide ongoing guidance.
A preliminary survey of sources for the history revealed a rich body of material. To supplement the major archival collections of papers from Richard T. Ely, Paul Reinsch, Frederic Ogg, John Gaus, and a number of others, oral histories were conducted with all emeritus faculty and former Chairs. A number of oral histories had been previously collected through the University history project or the American Political Science Association. A survey of the over 400 living doctoral alumni was carried out as well. The project has benefited greatly from the able research assistance of four current doctoral candidates, Matthew Dull, Rachel Girshick, Derek Pankratz and Mark Schrad.
The discovery early in our research that the actual foundation date of the Department was 1904, and not 1901 as previously believed, prompted plans for a centennial commemoration. Happily so: curiously, the 2001 date had slipped by without a solitary soul remarking on its centennial significance. Thus the rectification of an historical error permits appropriate observation of what is after all a signal moment in the life of the Department.
A number of other departmental histories exist or are in preparation: Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Economics, Geology, Journalism and Mass Communications, Music, Philosophy, Physics. Of these, only the Economics volume is comparable in scope. The eventual product will be a book-length volume.
Although much of the material has been assembled, and many of the chapters are available in draft form for the conference, a good deal of work remains, especially for the period before 1945. Archival materials for the prewar years are only partly exploited. The present timetable calls for completion of the volume during the course of 2005.