Dr. James B. LaGrand

James B. LaGrand is a historian of modern America.  He teaches a wide range of courses on American history since the mid-nineteenth century, and his research and writing focuses on the intertwining of political and social history during this time.  He serves as a referee, editorial reviewer, and consultant for journals, scholarly presses, and textbooks.  Before moving to Pennsylvania to teach at Messiah College in 1997, he lived in Boston; Ottawa, Canada; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Bloomington, Indiana.  He and his wife, Betsy, and their three children live in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

• Ph.D., U.S. History, Indiana University, 1997
• M.A., U.S. History, Indiana University, 1992
• B.A., History, Calvin College, 1990

• U.S. History, 1865-present 
• U.S. History, 1890-1945
• U.S. History, 1945-present 
• The Vietnam War
• U.S. Urban History 
• African-American History since 1865 
• Native American History 
• The American West 
• Public History 
• Nationalism and its Discontents in Modern America 
• My Country, Right or Wrong? America and its Critics
• Historical Methods (History sophomore seminar) - Fall 2014
• Historiography and the Philosophy of History (History senior seminar)
• Created and Called for Community (first-year core course)
• The Wages of Sin is Death: Breaking Bad as the New American Tragedy 

Modern American Political and Social History, Urban History, Public History, Native American History