The History Department recognizes Professor Marsha Frey for her forty-eight years of service. She joined the faculty in 1973. Professor Frey specializes in the history of early modern Europe, with expertise in European diplomacy. Professor Frey will retire from Kansas State University at the end of the Spring 2021 semester.
In collaboration with her sister Linda Frey, who is a professor of history at the University of Montana, Professor Frey co-authored fourteen books and more than 100 scholarly articles and chapters. Their works have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and Hungarian. Writing in the American Historical Review, historian John Mears praised their first book, A Question of Empire: Leopold I and the War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1705 (1983) for offering a “revealing perspective on the inescapable problems involved in waging coalition warfare.” In 2000, they published The History of Diplomatic Immunity. Writing in the Journal of World History, historian Hal Friedman celebrated that monograph, winner of the Phi Alpha Theta outstanding book award, as “a superb history of European international law.” The Freys continue to produce into the present, with Palgrave-MacMillan publishing their most recent book, The Culture of French Revolutionary Diplomacy: In the Face of Europe in 2018.
In addition to her accomplishments as a scholar, Professor Frey has been a pillar of the teaching mission of the Department of History at Kansas State University during her nearly half-century on the faculty. Her tireless efforts in teaching the introductory survey to Western Civilization from ancient times to the early modern era inspired generations of students to enroll in her popular upper division classes on such topics as the French Revolution and European diplomacy. Her expertise contributed to the military history and international relations emphases of the department’s graduate programs. Indeed, her many years of service vetting graduate student applications helped shape its very character to the present day.
The Department of History at Kansas State University will miss Professor Marsha Frey’s scholarly productivity, commitment to teaching and mentoring, and tireless efforts on behalf of our program. We wish Professor Frey the very best as she starts the next chapter of her life.
Professor Mark Parillo, Professor of History, retires Spring 2021
The History Department recognizes Professor Mark Parillo for his twenty-nine years of service in the Department of History. Professor Parillo specializes in US military history, with particular expertise warfare in the industrial age with a special focus on World War II. He joined the faculty in 1992. From 2004-2009, he served as the Director for the College of Arts and Sciences’ Institute for Military History and 20th Century Studies. Professor Parillo will retire from Kansas State University at the end of the Spring 2021 semester.
During his career, Professor Parillo published an array of books, articles, and essays on various aspects of World War II. His first book, The Japanese Merchant Marine in World War II (1992), argued that the Japanese failure in World War II is explained by the historical traditions and legacies of samurai values that permeated Japanese society due to its very rapid industrialization. In particular, these values undermined logistical systems that were the foundation of Imperial Japan’s war effort. Eminent military historian Ronald Specter praised the book as “an important and needed new perspective on the war with Japan.” Alvin Coox, another celebrated military historian, commended the study for the way in which its attention to the Japanese merchant marine “deepens our comprehension of the unsung maritime war.” He was also the editor of “We Were the Big One”: Experiences of the World War II Generation (2002). That volume earned praise from John G. McManus, writing in the Journal of Military History, as a “fine volume” that “succeeds in capturing the spirit and flavor of the World War II experience for Americans, both civilian and military.”
Professor Parillo’s retirement is a tremendous loss for our students. He has been the longtime instructor of the History Department’s freshman seminar that prepares incoming students for the challenges of majoring in history. He taught several popular upper division courses that attract students from across the university, including those on World War II and women in sport. His teaching and mentorship of graduate students has been a staple of the graduate program’s military history emphasis, and he has supervised dissertations covering a wide variety of topics in all aspects of US military history.
The Department of History at Kansas State University will miss Professor Mark Parillo’s expertise in military history, commitment to teaching and mentoring, and tireless efforts on behalf of our program.
Graduate Spotlight – Brad Galka
“Sure.” Four little letters– one small word have propelled Brad Galka into some very interesting experiences and roles during his two years at K-State in the master’s graduate program in History.
African History To Be Offered At K-State
This Spring Dr. Orr will be offering a new graduate class, the department’s first class on African History.
The class is a graduate-level introduction to nineteenth-and twentieth-century African history and will look at the continent’s political, military and social history. This is a region which is often underrepresented in world history classes and it is a rare historical field in which there is a shortage of qualified professors. Being able to credibly claim to be able to teach a basic undergraduate course in African history can be a major benefit on the job market and having some background in African history will help you to teach world history courses as well as classes on topics like the Cold War. Given the importance of the Ebola outbreak and the rise of Boko Haram this is an especially timely moment to study African history.
History Professors Out And About
Our Professors in the History Department are hard working people! They don’t just teach students on K-State’s campus but they are out in the community giving presentations and lectures, as well as writing publications.
Charles Sanders recently presented “The Blue Death: How the Cholera Epidemics of the Nineteenth Century Shaped the History of the United States” in Ghostmapping: A Public Lecture Series, K-State Book Network.
M.J. Morgan presented “Lost Kansas Communities” at the Kansas Historic Preservation Association Conference in Emporia. Continue reading “History Professors Out And About”
Allana Parker, 2010 History Grad, Making Her Way In The World
ALLANA PARKER: HISTORY BUFF
Parker is a 2010 Histoical Leadership Studies graduate from K-State. She is currently the curator of design at the Riley County Historical Museum and not surprisingly introducing kids to history has been a big part of her mission. Read all about her and her passion:
http://www.k-state.edu/history/allanaparker/Allana-Parker.pdf
MJ Morgan, Research Director for Rural Studies, consults on article for New York Times
A NEBRASKA GHOST TOWN, WITH A NAME FROM MARS, MAY BE REBORN
New York Times reporter, Mitch Smith, recently wrote an article on a Nebraska town that has basically become non-existent. To write this article he consulted with K-State’s own M. J. Morgan, Professor of History and Research Director for the Chapman Center for Rural Studies.
Read full article here:
History Alumni Making Us Proud
TJ Tomlin, 1999 KSU history graduate who went on to get his PhD at Missouri, has published his first book. It is called A Divinity For All Persuasions: Almanacs And Early American Religious Life, Oxford University Press, 2014. He also earned tenure and has been promoted to Associate Professor of History at the University of Northern Colorado.
Writing a book and being tenured and promoted are such major accomplishments. The K-State history department couldn’t be more proud of TJ. We enjoy watching our former students succeed.
The View from Oxford
It rained all day today, pretty normal English winter weather and I currently have a pile of books mocking me on my desk. Instead I write a note to K-State. I have just finished my first term at the University of Oxford where I am reading for a Master of Studies in Modern European and British history. Currently I’m working on a paper discussing the impact of microhistorical studies on our understanding of the English Reformation. It has been absolutely amazing to get to study here, it’s a magical place, the very stones demand each student or researcher to contribute, to not waste the time they are here.
I miss the halls of Eisenhower at K-State, I miss the people I know there, but the joy of being here at Oxford is indescribable. My teachers in the history department have prepared me well, to ask questions and to work hard, to check, and then recheck my writing. They asked me to think and to pay attention to the details. These skills have stood by me as I interact with students from Harvard, from Stanford, and who studied for their undergraduate degree here at Oxford.
Some of my favorite places here are definitely the libraries. One of my favorites is a place called the Duke Humphrey’s library. It is part of the original Bodleian (the main library of Oxford) and it houses part of the special collections—books published in the sixteenth century, manuscripts from even earlier. When a book is consulted there, you have to use special foam book rests and cotton covered weights to keep the pages open. Do not touch the books unless you have to and no pens are allowed, it is pretty strict. My college, Keble College, houses one of the largest collections of 15th century manuscripts outside the Bodleian. That’s one of the difficulties though—all the different libraries. I only have access to the Bodleian, the History Faculty Library and Keble Library, if any book is located only in a college library it is quite difficult to have access to it.
Next week I head to Strafford-Upon-Avon to consult a thesis kept in the Shakespeare Institute there. Then next Saturday I go home for the holidays, I am so excited to see Kansas, for the wind and the prairie. It is amazing here and I’m very excited to finish up next year and continue to represent Kansas but it is very nice to come home.
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