Thomas Childers
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Thomas Childers Jr. (born 1946) is an American historian and lecturer. He was hired by the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in 1976 and in 2017 became the Sheldon and Lucy Hackney Professor of History Emeritus. Childers was born and raised in
Cleveland, Tennessee Cleveland is the county seat of, and largest city in, Bradley County, Tennessee. The population was 47,356 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee (consisting of Bradle ...
. He later attended the
University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...
where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. He gained his Ph.D. in History in 1976 from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. Much of Childers work focuses on war and society in the twentieth century, particularly World War I and II. His father and uncle both fought in World War II; his uncle was killed in action, and although Childers's father survived, the family still struggled to reunite after his return. This greatly impacted his childhood and influenced his 2009 book about the experiences of American veterans after the war, ''Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II''. He has received several teaching awards including the Ira T. Abrahms Award in 1987 for Distinguish Teaching and Challenging Teaching in the Arts and Sciences, and the Richard S. Dunn Award for Distinguished Teaching in History. While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania Dr. Childers has taken many Visiting Professorships at well-known colleges such as the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
,
Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
, and Trinity Hall College. He has also done many lectures throughout the world in places like Oxford, Berlin, Munich, and London. Dr. Childers's work has been talked about by other historians. Some of those acknowledgements can be found in the book ''Historiography in the Twentieth Century from Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge'' written by Georg G. Iggers. For example, Iggers states "Thomas Childers concentrates more directly on language." (Iggers 1997) Childers has lectured on four of
The Great Courses The Teaching Company, doing business as The Great Courses, formerly Wondrium, is a media production company which produces educational, video, and audio content in the form of courses, documentaries, and series under two content brands: The Grea ...
series. , he lives in
Media, Pennsylvania Media is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located about west of Philadelphia. It is part of the Delaware Valley, also known as the Philadelphia metropolitan area. ...
.


Publications

*
The Nazi Voter
' (Chapel Hill, 1983) *
The Formation of the Nazi Constituency, 1919-1933
' (1986) *
Reevaluating the Third Reich (Europe Past and Present)
' (1993) *
Wings of Morning: The story of the last American bomber shot down over Germany in World War II
' (Reading, Mass. 1996) *''Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age'' ound recording(2000) *''History of Hitler's Empire'' ound recording*''World War II: A Military and Social History'' ound recording *''36 Revolutionary Figures in History: Hitler's Foreign Policy'' ound recording*
In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany
' (2003) *
Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II
' (May, 2009) *
The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
' (October, 2017)


Sources

*Iggers, Georg G. Historiography in the Twentieth Century from Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997. *''The Century: Ultimate Power.'' Directed by Kenneth Levis. Performed by Thomas Childers and Peter Jenning. 1999. *University Of Pennsylvania Websites http://www.upenn.edu/ *Arizona State Libraries http://lib.asu.edu/ *Childers, Thomas, interview by CB. Professional Life Story (May 1, 2009).


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Childers, Thomas 1946 births Living people 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Historians from Tennessee People from Cleveland, Tennessee People from Media, Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Pennsylvania historians University of Tennessee alumni