Dr. Rebecca Montgomery
Office: TMH-227
Email: rm53@txstate.edu
Phone: (512)245-2116
Dr. Montgomery received her PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia and taught in Georgia and Mississippi before coming to Texas State . Her research and teaching interests lie primarily in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era United States, with emphasis on the significance of gender in the struggle of subordinate groups for equal access to state resources. Several of her publications have examined southern women's role in Progressive educational reform movements, including a book, The Politics of Education in the New South: Women and Reform in Georgia , 1890-1930 (Louisiana State University Press, January 2006). Her current book project, a biography of educational reformer Celeste Parrish, will examine the intersection of race and gender in shaping postbellum educational reform and the place of southern women within the larger national framework of Progressive political culture. This project has been funded by two Mellon Research Fellowships from the Virginia Historical Society and a university Research Enhancement Grant. Dr. Montgomery also is interested in rural women as a historically overlooked and underserved segment of the population. Her essay, "'We are Practicable, Sensible Women': The Missouri Women Farmers' Club and the Professionalization of Agriculture, 1900-1915," published in Women in Missouri History: In Search of Power and Influence , eds. Mary Neth and LeeAnn Whites (University of Missouri Press, 2004), discusses the obstacles women farmers have faced in trying to lay claim to a fair share of public services aimed at promoting scientific commercial agriculture.
Courses Taught:
History 1310: History of the United States to 1877
A survey of United States social, cultural, economic, and political history from the beginning of European settlement through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Major themes include: the role of racial and ethnic diversity in shaping American culture and institutions; the origins and nature of regional difference; the evolution of political ideals and institutions in the new nation; the social and political impact of early industrialization; and the causes and outcomes of the Civil War.
History 1320: History of the United States 1877 to Date
A survey of United States social, cultural, economic, and political history from the end of Reconstruction to the present. Major themes include: the emergence of the New South; the nature of industrialization and the movements of dissent and reform that occurred in response; the impact of wars on U.S. domestic and foreign policy; the origins of the welfare state and reasons for its decline; and the evolution of problems and solutions associated with cultural difference/diversity.
History 3340: History of the United States 1877-1914
An advanced undergraduate lecture course that examines major historical themes from the end of Reconstruction through the beginning of the First World War.
History 5357: The Gilded Age
A graduate seminar on major themes in U.S. history between 1865 and 1900. These themes include: the rise of industrial capitalism and laissez faire ideology; the emergence of "outsider" worker and farmer movements and the "insider" political response; the development of new concepts of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, and the ways in which these concepts shaped national identity as well as domestic and foreign policy; and the overlapping nature of economic, political, and social factors in influencing the transformation of American institutions and culture.
History 5351A: Politics and Reform in the Progressive Era
A graduate seminar exploring the interplay of domestic forces that shaped politics and reform movements between the 1890s and 1918.
Links
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