History
Christopher Herbert, D-1-106 MAK, Telephone #616-331-8817, herbertc@gvsu.edu
Visiting Faculty
Fields: U.S. History; Race, Gender, and Empire in North America; Canadian History; Native American History; North American West; Modern China; U.S .Foreign Policy; Sport History; World History
Degrees: B.A., Simon Fraser University (2002)
M.A., Simon Fraser University (2005)
Ph.D., University of Washington (2012)
Research:
Dr. Herbert’s research focuses on the intersection of power and identity. His dissertation, “White Power, Yellow Gold: Colonialism and Identity in the California and British Columbia Gold Rushes, 1848 – 1871” was a trans-national comparison of the formation of white manliness in two distinct, but related, gold rushes on the West Coast of North America. It revealed that the worldview of the miners was a variation on the emerging Victorian worldview of the eastern United States and Britain, but one that evolved first on the journey to the gold fields, then continually after the miners arrived. Race and gender were central to the how these men thought of gold rush society. In particular, they linked a constantly-changing definition of white manliness to justifications for colonial domination and judged both themselves and the people they encountered on this basis. These understandings were manifested not only in the conflicts over the formation of colonial authority in both rushes, but also in conflicts over how white, manly miners should dress and what sort of risks they should take.
Dr. Herbert is currently working on one project about race, sexuality, and downhill skiing and a second project on how the differing perceptions of nineteenth century Americans traveling through and living in the American West and Latin America shaped popular opinion and U.S. policies toward those two areas.
Recent Scholarship:
Refereed Publications:
“The Society of Death and Anglo-American Conspiracy Theories in Gold Rush California, 1849 – 1858,” in Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East and the United States, edited by Michael Butter and Maurus Reinkowski (New York: de Gruyter, forthcoming 2012).
“‘Life’s Prizes are by Labor Got’: Risk, Reward, and White Manliness in the California Gold Rush” Pacific Historical Review. August 2011. Volume 80, No. 3.
Conference Presentations:
“Narratives of Otherness and Civilization on the Paths to California Gold.” Milwaukee, WI, Frontiers of Capitalism and Democracy, The Organization of American Historians Annual Conference,19 – 22 April, 2012.
“Becoming Cousins: Race, National Identity, and the California and British Columbia Gold Rushes, 1848 – 1871.” Seattle, WA, Communities, Cultures and Cross-Border Considerations: An Interdisciplinary Canada-US Graduate Symposium, 15 April, 2011.
“The Society of Death and Anglo-American Fears of Secret Organizations in Gold Rush California, 1849-1858.” Freiburg, Germany, Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East and the United States: A Comparative Approach, 13 – 15 January, 2011.
“Beyond Regions: The Gold-Field System of the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” Incline, NV, Western History Association 50th Annual Conference, 13 – 16 October, 2010.
“Crossed Wires: Work, Risk, and White Manliness During the Californian Gold Rush.” Wired West. Denver, CO, Western History Association 49th Annual Conference, 7 – 10 October, 2009.
Page last modified August 23, 2012
