Penny Von Eschen

Penny Marie Von Eschen is an American historian and Professor of History and William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American Studies at the University of Virginia.^[1] She is known for her works on American and African-American history, American diplomacy, the history of music, and their connections with decolonization.

Education and career

Von Eschen graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1982. She completed a Ph.D. from the department of history at Columbia University in 1994;^[2] her dissertation was African-Americans and colonialism, 1937–1957: The rise and fall of the politics of the African diaspora.^[3]

She was an assistant professor of history at the University of Iowa from 1994 to 1996, and at the University of Texas at Austin from 1996 to 1999. Next, she became an associate professor of history and American culture at the University of Michigan, and was promoted to professor there in 2006. In 2015 she moved to Cornell University as the L. Sanford and Jo Mills Reis Professor of Humanities, before moving again to Virginia.^[2]

Books

Von Eschen's book on trumpeter Louis Armstrong and the Jazz ambassadors program of the United States Department of State, Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (2004)^[4] was first runner-up for the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize for the Best Book in American Studies in 2005.^[5] A feature-length documentary film, The Jazz Ambassadors (2018), was inspired in part by the book, and Von Eschen herself appears as a commentator in the film.^[6]

She also wrote Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957 (1997).^[7] Von Eschen is coeditor of Contested Democracy: Freedom, Race, and Power in American History (2007)^[8] and of American Studies: An Anthology (2009).^[9]

References

1. "Faculty: V". Department of History, University of Virginia. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
2. "Bio: Penny M. Von Eschen". Faculty history project. University of Michigan. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
3. Lauer, Joseph J. (April–June 1995). "Recent doctoral dissertations". African Studies Association News. 28 (2): 25.
4. Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War, Harvard University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0674022607. Reviews:
   • Hall, Phil (December 19, 2004). "Uniquely American". Hartford Courant.
   • Rickert, David (January 1, 2005). "Book reviews". All About Jazz.
   • Church, Michael (February 1, 2005). "How jazz joined the US diplomacy arsenal". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25.
   • Brown, John (March 2005). "The lessons of jazz". Foreign Service Journal: 55.
   • "Books". The Age. April 2, 2005.
   • Norton, Brian (June 9, 2005). "The cool war". The Nation.
   • Rustin, Nichole T. (December 2005). The Journal of American History. 92 (3): 1047–1048. doi:10.2307/3660096. JSTOR 3660096.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Tsioulcas, Anastasia (January 1, 2006). "Review". JazzTimes.
   • Cooke, Mervyn (January 2006). Music & Letters. 87 (1): 161–163. doi:10.1093/ml/gci176. JSTOR 352644.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Atkins, E. Taylor (April 2006). The American Historical Review. 111 (2): 519–520. doi:10.1086/ahr.111.2.519. JSTOR 10.1086/ahr.111.2.519.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Plummer, Brenda Gayle (June 2006). The International History Review. 28 (2): 451–453. JSTOR 40109798.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Berger, Martin (January 2007). History: Reviews of New Books. 35 (2): 61. doi:10.1080/03612759.2007.10527019. S2CID 141650829.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Weidman, Melinda R. (Summer 2007). The Journal of African American History. 92 (3): 443–445. doi:10.1086/JAAHv92n3p443. JSTOR 20064215.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Thomas, Matthew (March 31, 2008). "Book review". USC Center on Public Diplomacy.
   • Lowenfish, Lee (Winter 2008). The Slavic and East European Journal. 52 (4): 628–629. JSTOR 40651295.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Smulyan, Susan (June 2009). "The cultural turn in U.S. diplomatic history". Diplomatic History. 33 (3): 539–542. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2009.00790.x. JSTOR 44214031.
   • Milne, David (September 2011). "How front organizations played the CIA". The Historical Journal. 54 (3): 925–932. doi:10.1017/S0018246X11000306. JSTOR 23017277. S2CID 162996329.
   • Teigrob, Robert (October 2011). Journal of Cold War Studies. 13 (4): 235–237. doi:10.1162/jcws_r_00188. S2CID 57564267.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Shannon, Phil. "Review". Australian Left Book Review.
5. "Annual Report 2005–2006" (PDF). National Humanities Center. p. 39.
6. Layman, Will (May 14, 2018). "'The Jazz Ambassadors': When Dizzy and Satchmo Diplomacy Swung the Cold War". PopMatters.
7. Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957, Cornell University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0801482922. Reviews:
   • Shaffer, Robert (November 1997). "Review". Monthly Review. 49 (6).
   • Gaither, Larvester (April 1998). Race & Class. 39 (4): 89–93. doi:10.1177/030639689803900410. S2CID 143777391.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Johnson, Kirk A. (May 1998). Contemporary Sociology. 27 (3): 304–305. doi:10.2307/2655217. JSTOR 2655217.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Johnson, Robert David (June 1998). The Journal of American History. 85 (1): 296–297. doi:10.2307/2568559. JSTOR 2568559.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Plummer, Brenda Gayle (June 1998). The International History Review. 20 (2): 449–451. JSTOR 40108257.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Scott, William R. (Fall 1998). "An identity of passions". Diplomatic History. 22 (4): 633–640. doi:10.1111/0145-2096.00145. JSTOR 24913633.
   • Ferguson, Karen (Fall 1998). Labour / Le Travail. 42: 264–266. doi:10.2307/25148899. JSTOR 25148899.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Noer, Thomas J. (June 1999). The American Historical Review. 104 (3): 931–932. doi:10.2307/2651061. JSTOR 2651061.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Dull, Laura (December 1999). Journal of American Studies. 33 (3): 556–557. JSTOR 27556727.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Lang, Clarence (January–February 2000). "Review". Against the Current. 84: 929.
8. Contested Democracy: Freedom, Race, and Power in American History (edited with Manisha Sinha), Columbia University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0231141109. Reviews:
   • Tsesis, Alexander (June 2008). The Journal of American History. 95 (1): 202–203. doi:10.2307/25095507. JSTOR 25095507.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Dailey, Jane (May 2009). The Journal of Southern History. 75 (2): 511–512. JSTOR 27779017.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
9. American Studies: An Anthology (edited with Janice Radway, Kevin Gaines, and Barry Shank), Wiley, 2009, ISBN 978-1405113519. Review:
   • Browne, Ray B. (September 2009). "Review". The Journal of American Culture. 32 (3): 267–268. ProQuest 200615948.