Edward T. Linenthal of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh has been appointed editor of the Journal of American History. The Journal editorial office is on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. Linenthal will also join the IU’s department of history. After earning his Ph.D. at the University of California , Santa Barbara , Linenthal spent most of his academic career at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where he is currently the Edward M. Penson Professor of Religion and American Culture as well as Chancellor’s Public Scholar. His scholarly writings--focused primarily on the ways in which Americans have commemorated traumatic events--have established his reputation as a historian with an insightful grasp of the points of contention and controversy that mark the struggles of people coming to terms with episodes of mass violence. His books include The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory (2001); Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum (1995); Sacred Ground: Americans and their Battlefields (1993); and, coedited with Tom Engelhardt, History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past (1996). He has also published articles in the Journal of American History and The Public Historian, among other journals.

In exploring the suffering, redemption, and remembrance in American culture, Linenthal interweaves scholarship, service and teaching. He has worked on the National Park Service’s Civic Engagement and Public History project since 2002 and as an ongoing member of the Flight 93 Federal Advisory Commission. In courses that explore the overlap of historical and moral dilemmas in American life, Linenthal’s teaching has drawn strong praise from both colleagues and students alike, as befits a recipient of the UW-Oshkosh’s Distinguished Teaching Award. “Ed brings a public history perspective to this scholarly position that reinforces the OAH’s mission to encourage wide discussion of historical questions,” noted Lee W. Formwalt, OAH Executive Director. Linenthal will assume his duties in July 2005. Formwalt also expressed OAH’s gratitude to David Nord, professor in the Department of Journalism and adjunct professor of history at Indiana University for serving as acting editor of JAH.