Formwalt

OAH Magazine of History
Volume 22, No 4
October 2008

Copyright ©
Organization of American Historians

From the Executive Director

I am pleased to introduce Carl Weinberg as the new editor of the OAH Magazine of History. A Ph.D. in American history from Yale, Carl has taught history for more than a decade, both at North Georgia College and State University and more recently at DePauw University. He is the author of Labor, Loyalty and Rebellion: Southwestern Illinois Coal Miners and World War I (2005).

Carl comes to OAH in our twenty-third year of publishing the MOH which has experienced significant change in the last decade. One constant, however, has been OAH Director of Publications Michael Regoli, who was instrumental in helping create the MOH in 1984-1985. Eventually the Magazine was published quarterly with each issue devoted to a particular theme in American history. A specialist in that theme was contracted as a guest editor while Michael, a graduate assistant, and an undergraduate intern, provided editorial and production support from Bloomington.

MOH themes have ranged from the more traditional to the methodological and historiographical, as well as to new fields and topics. Our goal has been to provide resources for teachers of the high school and college level U.S. history survey course. Whether it covers a traditional topic or a new cutting- edge theme, the MOH provides teachers with the latest scholarship in the field.

With the support of Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (2003-2008), the History Channel (beginning in 2005), and several small grants, we were able to improve the quality of the MOH. In April 2003 we brought four-color images to the cover and in October 2003 we brought four-color throughout on glossy stock. The Hata Education Fund provided support for our music issue and our first MOH CD. Additional funding allowed us to take the major step of hiring an in-house editor, Kevin Byrne. Kevin and his successors Phillip Guerty and Carl Weinberg are Ph.D. historians with considerable teaching experience. Each has left his mark on the publication, which is better today for their stewardship. Kevin and Phillip have both returned to teaching full-time and already with his first issue Carl has demonstrated his skills as a teacher, researcher, and editor.

—Lee W. Formwalt