PUBLICATIONS
and RESEARCH
Colin Gordon, Professor of History
[link to Iowa Department of History homepage]
EDUCATION
PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT
Department Chair, June 2006-present
Professor, June 2004-present, University of Iowa
Associate
Professor, 1996-2004,
Assistant
Professor, 1994-1996,
Assistant
Professor, 1990-1994,
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 285pp
Dead on Arrival: The Politics
of Health Care in Twentieth Century America (
New Deals: Business, Labor, and Politics in America, 1920-1935 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 329pp (paperback 1994 as well).
Textbooks
Major
Problems in American History, 1920-1945: Document and Essays (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1999), 451pp.
Refereed Articles
"Blighting the Way: Urban Renewal, Economic Development, and the Elusive Definition of ‘Blight’," Fordham Urban Law Journal 31:2 (January 2004), 305-337; reprinted in 2005 Zoning and Planning Law
Handbook (Thomson-West, 2005).
“A Poisonous Past,”Reviews in American History 31 (December 2003), 611-614.
“The
“Why Wagner? A Response to Robert Zieger,” Journal of Policy History 11:2 (1999), 201-206.
“Rethinking the New Deal,” Columbia Law Review 98:8 (December 1998), 2029-2054.
“Perche Negli Stati Uniti non si e
Affermato il Corporatismo,” Passato e
Presente [Italy] 45 (Dec. 1998), 93-112.
“Why No Corporatism in the
“Why No Health Insurance in the
“Does the Ruling Class Rule?” Reviews in American History 25:2 (June 1997), 288-293.
“Still Searching for Progressivism,” Reviews in American History 23 (1995): 669-674.
"Lessons of History? Past and Present in the Gulf War," Radical History Review 55 (Winter 1993): 135-144.
"Dead
On Arrival: Health Care Reform in the
"New Deal, Old Deck: Business and the Origins of Social Security, 1920-1935." Politics and Society 19 (June 1991): 165-207.
"Crafting a Usable Past: Consensus, Ideology, and Historians of the American Revolution." William and Mary Quarterly 46 (Oct. 1989): 671-695.
"The
Modern American Presidency, 1945-1974: A Bibliographical Essay." Canadian Review of American Studies
Other Research Publications
(with Beth Pearson), Young Workers and the Iowa Economy ( Iowa Policy Project, 2008), 8pp.
(with Beth Pearson), Women, Work, and Iowa Economy( Iowa Policy Project, 2008), 13pp.
(with Beth Pearson), The State of Working Iowa 2008( Iowa Policy Project, 2008), 12pp
EZ Money: Assessing Iowa’s Enterprise Zone Program (Iowa Policy Project, 2008), 18pp
(with Elaine Ditsler and Jevon Europe), The State of Working Iowa, 2007 ( Iowa Policy Project, 2007), 32pp
Prescriptions and Placebos: Health Reform in Iowa ( Iowa Policy Project, 2006), 28pp.
(with Peter Fisher and Elaine Ditsler), No Picnic: A Labor Day 2006 Update on the State of Working Iowa (Iowa Policy Project, 2006)
(with Peter Fisher and Elaine Ditsler), The State of Working Iowa, 2005 (Iowa Policy Project, 2005)
(with Peter Fisher, David West, and Elaine Ditlser), Nonstandard Jobs, Substandard Benefits (Department of Labor, 2005)
(with Elaine Ditsler and Peter Fisher), On the Fringe: The Substandard Benefits of Workers in Part-Time, Temporary, and Contract Jobs (The Commonwealth Fund, December 2005), 32pp
Working Blues: Labor Day in Iowa, 2004 (Iowa Policy Project, 2004), 7pp
Bending the Rules: The Promise and Practice
of the Grow Iowa Values Fund
(Iowa Policy Project, 2004), 18pp
(with
Peter Fisher and Elaine Ditsler) The State
of
(with Peter Fisher) The State of Working Iowa, 2001 (Iowa Policy Project, 2001), 76pp
[report on state wages and working conditions, commissioned by Iowa State Federation of Labor]
“Brief Amici Curiae of Twelve University Professors and the Center for a New Democracy”
New Party v. McKenna [Supreme Court case deciding validity of state prohibitions on electoral fusion
or multi-party nomination] August 1996“ (author and co-signor)
“Dead on Arrival: The Past and Future of American Health Care,” (Open Magazine, New Party Papers #2, 1995), 1-30.
Short Publications and Notes
"Welfare Capitalism," Encylopedia of the Great Depression (Thompson-Gale, 2004), 1027-1029.
"Putting Reagan on the Dime," History News Network (December 2003)
"September
11 in Historical Perspective" subTerrean
[
“The New Deal” entry in Encyclopedia of American Studies (Grolier, 2005)
“Chamber
of Commerce” and “National Association of Manufacturers,” entries in the Oxford Companion to American
“Health Care: Some Historical Lessons,” One For All: Newsletter of Health For All--California 5 (Spring 1998), 2,5 [reprinted by Third World Traveler].
“Blown Fusion” In These Times
“Who Killed Health Care?” In TheseTimes
"The
Cloak of Power: History and the '
"The American Politics of Canadian Health Care," Canadian Dimension (Sept. 1992): 17-20.
“Labor Update: Miners' Health Bargain," Z Magazine 5-6 (May-June 1992): 56-57.
“The Politics of Health Care Reform: Market Magic, Bad Medicine," Against the Current 7:1 (March-April 1992): 3-6.
"Thicker
than Oil: American Stakes in the Gulf." Canadian Dimension 25 (April-May 1991): 33-37 [reprinted
as: "Thicker than Oil." Z
Magazine 4 (April 1991): 26-30; and in The
Military Intervention (GEM Publications, 1991)].
"Cosmetic
Surgery: Health Care the Corporate Way," The Nation 252 (
"Pittston and the Political Economy of Coal," Z Magazine 3 (Feb. 1990): 95-100.
Book Reviews
Jonathon Oberlander, The Political Life
of Medicare, Health Affairs (2003).
Lizbeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic, Business History Review (2003)
William
Millikan, A
Ruth O’Brien, Workers’ Paradox: The Republican Origins of New Deal Labor Policy, 1886-1935, Law and History Review (2001)
Colin J. Davis, Power at Odds: The 1922 Railroad Shopmen’s Strike, Annals of Iowa (1998)
Robert
Cunnigham and Robert Cunningham Jr., The
Blues: A History of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield System,
H-Business/H-Net (April 1998); also The Annals of Iowa (1999)
David
Plotke, Building A Democratic Political
Order: Reshaping American Liberalism in the 1930s and 1940s, The
Historian (1998)
Jonathon
Bean, Beyond the
William Preston, Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933, Journal of Ethnic History (1996)
Elizabeth
Fones-Wolf, Selling Free Enterprise,
Journal of Economic History (1995)
Dorothy Ross, The Origins of American Social Science, Canadian Journal of History (1993).
Roger Kanet and Edward Kolodziej, The Cold War as Cooperation, Canadian-American Slavic Studies (1993).
Alexander Keyssar, Out of Work: The First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts Labor History (1992).
Published Reviews of Scholarship: DEAD ON
ARRIVAL
Nancy Tomes, Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law (Feb. 2005)
Thomas Oliver, Journal of American History (Sept. 2004)
Richard Levinson, Social Theory and Health (2005)
David Rochefort, Contemporary Sociology (July 2004)
Rosemary Stevens, Bulletin of the History of Medicine (Spring 2004)
Beatrix Hoffman, Journal of Policy History 16:3 (2004)
Tom Gallagher, San Francisco
Bay Guardian (25 June 2003)
David
Rosner, Business History Review 78:1 (Spring 2004)
Bernard Bloom, Journal of the American Medical Association (8 October 2003)
Declan O'Reilly, Enterprise and Society 5:1 (2004), 173-175
Jacob Hacker, Political Science Quarterly 118:4 (2003-4)
John Rodgers, Z Magazine 17:5 (May 2004)
Daniel Fox, American Historical Review 109:2 (April 2004)
Linda Sabin, Nursing History Review 13 (2004)
Published
Reviews of Scholarship: NEW DEALS
Robert H. Zieger, The American Historical Review, 101: 2. (Apr., 1996), p. 584.
Donald Brand, American Political Science Review, 89:2 (June 1995), p. 497-8.
Peter Fearon, The Economic History Review, 48:3 (Aug., 1995), pp. 633-634.
David
Hamilton, Labour [
John Braeman, “Unionism in the Twentieth Century US: Recent Publications by Sidney Fine, Robert Zieger, and Colin Gordon” Canadian Review of American Studies 26:1 (1996): 123-135.
Jerry
T
Kim McQuaid, Journal of American History 82:3 (1995), 1261-1262.
Howell Harris, Historical Journal 42:1 (1999), 293-308.
Daniel Nelson, Industrial and Labor Relations Review 50:3 (1997), 537-538.
Alan Dawley, International Labor and Working Class History 50 (1996), 219-221.
Rhonda Levine, Contemporary Sociology 25:2 (1996), 198-199.
David
Montgomery, International Review of Social History 40 (1995), 467-469.
J.
Lovell, Business History [
Roy Rosenzweig, Labor History 36:3 (1995), 481-483.
Robert M. Collins, Journal of Economic History 55:3 (1995), 725-726.
Jacques Portes, Revue Francaise
d’Etudes Americaines 64 (1995), 393-394.
Robert Cuff, Canadian Journal of History 30 (1995), 386-7.
Douglas Jaenicke, Political Studies 44:4 (1996), 295.
Philip
Cullis, Labour History Review [
Mansel Blackford, Choice 32:10 (1995), 32-5850.
Richard Greenwald, Journal of Policy History 9:3 (1997).
Selected Presentations
“St. Louis Blues: Mapping the Decline of an American City,” The New School, New York (March 2009).
“Mapping Decline: The Urban Crisis in Historical Perspective,” East-West Gateway Coordinating Council Annual Meeting, November 2008
Roundtable on “Mapping Decline,” at the Social Science History Association Conference, Miami, October 2008
“Mapping Decline: The Urban Crisis in Historical Perspective,” East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, June 2008
“St. Louis: What Happened?” book talk and slide show, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, May 2008)
“The Promise and Limits of the New Deal,” St. Paul Public Library, invited talk in “Untold Stories” [Labor History Month] series, April 2008
Roundtable on “Mapping Decline,” at the Policy History Conference, St. Louis, May 2008
“Race and Space in the Urban Crisis: The Case of St. Louis” at the Social Science History Association, November 2007
“Blight and Redevelopment: Historical Perspectives” at the Fourth Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, William and Mary Law School (October 2007)
“Mapping St. Louis” Poster Session (American Historical Association, Atlanta, January 2007)
“Race and Public Policy” Roundtable on Ira Katznelson’s, When Affirmative Action Was White (Social Science History Association, Minneapolis, November 2006)
"St. Louis Blues: How We Got Here," (plenary session, Economic Analysis and Research Network [EARN], St. Louis, Sept. 2006)
"Race and Realty in 20th Century St. Louis," for the Columbia University Seminar on Twentieth Century Politics (invited), January 2006.
"On the Street Where We Live: Mapping the History of Land Use in Greater St. Louis" for Missouri Supreme Court Historical Society (invited), November 2005
“The Iron Ring: Race and Housing in 20th Century St. Louis” for UI Urban Planning Faculty Workshop, February 2005
“Why No National Health Insurance?: Lessons from the 20th Century Struggle,” at the American Public Health Association, Washington DC, November 2004
“Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Flame: Organized Medicine and
Health Politics” for the Medicine and Society series (UI Medical School), December 2002
“"Fifty Hands on Fifty
Triggers": Business, Federalism, and American Social Policy," at
the Policy History Conference, St.
Louis
Dancing with Jim Crow: Medicare, Title VI,
and the Politics of Health Reform in the 1960s,” at the Policy History
Conference,
“The Politics and History of Health Care
Reform” for the Interdisciplinary Health Group (Fall 1998) and the
“Metropolitan Unionism in Historical
Perspective” at the Metro Unionism Conference (AFL-CIO, University of Washington
“Why
No Corporatism in the
“States
of Chaos: Economic Interests, Social Policy, and the Logics of American
Federalism” at the American Historical Association [session sponsored by
SHGAPE],
"Debating
Health Insurance in the 1940s” in the Research Seminar series, Center For
Business, Technology, and Society,
“A
Disorganizational Synthesis? Business, Labor, and Politics in Modern America,” for the Atlanta Seminar in the Comparative
History of Labor, Industry, Technology, and Society,
“The Limits of Social Provision in Two Postwar Eras, 1918-1920, 1945-1948,” at the Organization of American Historians, Chicago, March 1996.
“Dead
on Arrival: Health Insurance and the American Welfare States, 1920-1940,” at
the Social Science History Association,
“Why
No National Health Insurance in the
Conference
Chairs and Comments
Chair, Panel on Unstable Family Subjects in the Us and Britain, 1860s to 1990s, AHA, Atlanta, 2006
Chair,
Panel on the Private Welfare State, SSHA Conference,
Comment,
Panel on American Federalism, APSA Conference,
Comment,
Panel on Labor and Employment, Policy History Conference,
Comment,
Panel on Bankruptcy and Labor Law in
Chair,
Panel on the International Automobile Industry, Business History Conference,
Chair,
Panel on NAFTA, Rocky Mountain Conference on Latin American Studies,
AWARDS AND GRANTS
May Brodbeck Fellowship (University of Iowa, 2007-8)
Robert Seiler Fellowship, Missouri State Archives, 2005
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2004-5)
nTitle
Teaching Grant (
Arts
and Humanities Initiative Grant (University of Iowa, 2002-3)
Central
Investment Fund for Research Enhancement (University of Iowa, 1997)
Harry S. Truman Library, Grant-in-Aid (1995)
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, Grant-in-Aid (1995)
Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of