 Peter McCord
Visiting Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Riverside, 2003
W331 Thompson Hall
Office Phone: 716/673-3522
E-mail: peter.mccord@fredonia.edu
Having overcome the debilitating trauma of studying Economics at the graduate level, Dr. McCord smoothly transitioned to History, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2003. Through his graduate study, Dr. McCord discovered both the futility and necessity in formality. While his research interests are varied, they usually focus on the intellectual and cultural side of U.S. history, in particular, anything that might further illuminate the eccentric and elaborate nationalism of Walt Whitman and Thomas Jefferson, and how their ideas ripple through contemporary waters. Quite often the end results of Dr. McCord's research are environmental politics and thought, including, but not limited to, the more interesting social and political organizing bodies of the movement, such as Greenpeace.
Dr. McCord's research methods are entirely empirical-this may sound hopelessly old fashioned-but it nonetheless spares him from a life enveloped in theory and, potentially, the madness that resides therein. When he isn't reading or writing about History, Dr. McCord enjoys following college football and professional basketball, in that order. "The appeal inherent to organized sports is that it maintains the promise, however illusory or utopian, of a meritocracy and a rules-based society." For similar reasons he is unimpressed with reality television: "The illusion is grotesque."
Currently Dr. McCord is researching the intellectual heritage of contemporary environmental activists, as well as the domestic and foreign policy of the Kennedy Administration, when and where it relates to environmental themes, issues or conflicts. The work is often grim, but strangely satisfying.
Dr. McCord teaches the following courses at SUNY Fredonia
HIST 106 U.S. History II
HIST 133 American Cultures
HIST 135 World Cultures
HIST 332 U.S. History since 1945
HIST 350 Vietnam and the National Security State
HIST 394 Globalization
HIST 399 Global Second World War
HIST 432 The Sixties
SSED 205 Economics for Social Studies Educators
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