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PAUL COHEN

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D. in Modern European History, University of Chicago, 1984

    • Concentrations: Modern France, Intellectual History

    • Dissertation:  "Piety and Politics: Catholic Revival and the Generation of 1905-14 in France" 

  • M.A. in History, University of Chicago, 1979

  • B.A.  Magna cum Laude with high honors in History, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1977

  • Attended Harvard University as a special student, 1975-76

Teaching Experience

  • Professor of History and Patricia Hamar Boldt Professor of Liberal Studies,  Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, 2003-2022

  • Professor of History, Lawrence University 1999-2003                                  

  • Director of the ACM/GLCA Newberry Library Seminar in the Humanities, 1991-1992      

  • Associate Professor of History, Lawrence University, 1990-1999                                

  • Assistant Professor of History, Lawrence University, 1985-1990                                  

  • Lecturer, History of Western Civilization, University of Chicago, 1983-1985

  • Instructor in History, American College in Paris, Paris, France, 1982-1983

Administrative Experience

  • Chair, Provost Search Committee, Lawrence University, 2005-2006     

  • Chair, Department of History, Lawrence University, 2000-2005

  • Director, Freshman Studies Program, Lawrence University, 1996-1998

Honors and Awards

  • Lawrence University Faculty Convocation Award, 2017     

  • Lawrence University Excellence in Teaching Award, 2008

  • Lawrence University Freshman Studies Teaching Award, 1998-1999

  • Phi Beta Kappa, 1976

Grants and Fellowships

  • Summer Research Grants, Lawrence University (1986, 1987)

  • Georges Lurcy Scholar (Paris, 1982-83)

  • Gilbert Chinard Summer Fellow (Paris, 1982)

  • University of Chicago Hutchinson Fellowship in History (1980-81)

  • University of Chicago Kundstadter Fellowship in History (1979-80)

Scholarly Positions and Memberships

  • Book Review Editor, Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2010-2022

  • Film and History Association

  • American Historical Association   

Publications

Books

  • Freedom's Moment: An Essay on the French Idea of Liberty from  Rousseau to Foucault, (Chicago, the University of Chicago Press, 1997)  [Korean translation, 2002] 

  • Piety and Politics: Catholic Revival and the Generation of 1905-14 in France, (New York, Garland Press, 1987)                    

Articles and Reviews

  • Hollywood Westerns and American Myth: The Importance of Howard Hawks and John Ford for Political Philosophy (Yale, 2010) by Robert Pippin Film &History: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Fall, 2012 (Book Review)

  • Catholicism and Democracy: An Essay in the History of Political Thought (Princeton, 2012) by Emile Perreau-Saussine, The American Historical Review, June 2013 (Book Review)

  • Imagining Fascism: The Cultural Politics of the French Young Right, 1930-1945 by Paul Mazgaj, The Journal of Modern History, March 2009 (Book Review)

  • Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S History by Robert Burgoyne, Film & History Fall 2010 (Book Review)

  • “Cowboys Die Hard: Real Men and Businessmen in the Reagan-Era Blockbuster,” Film & History (article, Spring, 2011)

  • “Real Men Don’t Do Workshops,” The Chronicle Review, 21 November 2003 

  •  “How the Democrats should challenge Republican Manhood” (online article at The Annapolis Group, February 18, 2005)

  • The Rule of Freedom: Liberalism and the Modern City by Patrick Joyce, American Historical Review (Book Review: February 2004)

  • Zarathustra in Paris: The Nietzsche Vogue in France, 1891-1918 (Dekalb, Illinois, 2001) by Christopher Forth, The Journal of Modern History (Book Review: March 2003)   

  • The Deaths of Louis XVI: Regicide and the French Political Imagination (Princeton, New Jersey, 1994), by Susan Dunn, The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography (Book Review: 1995)

  • After the French Revolution (New York, 1992), by Jack Hayward, The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography (Book Review: 1993)

  • Michel Foucault (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991), by Didier Eribon, English Language in Transition (Book Review: September 1992)            

  • "Jacques Maritain," in Frank N. Magill, ed., Great Lives in History: Twentieth Century (Pasadena, 1990) 

  • Histoire religieuse de la France contemporaine, 1880-1930 (Paris, 1986), by Gérard Cholvy and Yves-Marie Hilaire, The Journal of Modern History (Book Review:  Winter 1990)           

  • "Heroes and Dilettantes: Action Française, Le Sillon, and the Generation of 1905-14 in France," French Historical Studies (Fall 1989)

  • Ambivalent Alliance: the Catholic Church and Action Française 1899-1939 (Pittsburgh, 1985), by Oscar Arnal, The Journal of Modern History (Book Review: Spring 1987)

  • "Reason and Faith: The Bergsonian Catholic Youth of Pre-War France,” Historical Reflections (Summer-Fall 1986)

  • "Les Élèves Catholiques de l'École  Normale Supérieure 1905-14,” Cahiers d'Histoire (Spring 1984)

  • Jacques Maritain and the French Catholic Intellectuals (Notre Dame,1982) by Bernard Doering, International  Journal  for the Philosophy of Religion (Book Review: Spring 1984)

  • "Liberalism, Intransigence, and the Catholic Avant-garde in France, 1890-1914:  A Reassessment," Contemporary French Civilization (Fall 1984)

Selected Presentations

  • “Presidential Manhood: Masculinity and American Politics in the Age of Mass Media” Lawrence University Memorial Chapel (May 23, 2017)

  • “Cowboys Die Hard: Real Men and Businessmen in a Reagan Era Blockbuster,” National Popular Culture & American Culture Association, New Orleans, Louisiana (April 2009)

  • “Self-Made Manhood and Postwar Hollywood: John Wayne’s Red River,” Main Hall Forum, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, (September, 2007)

  • "The Priest, the Wife, and the Experts: Anticlericalism, Freedom, and Masculinity in Michelet and Foucault," The Society for French Historical Studies, University of Kentucky at Lexington (Fall 1997)

  • "Sartre, Foucault, and the Myth of the Heroic Intellectual in Modern France," The Western Society for French History, Missoula, Montana, (Spring, 1993)

  • "The Revolutionary Moment of Freedom:  A Trope in Modern French Thought from Rousseau to Foucault," The Western Society for French History, Orcas Island, Washington (Spring, 1992)

  • "Jacques Maritain: Antimodern or Antiliberal," The Western Society for French History, New Orleans, Louisiana (Spring, 1989)

  • "Dilettantes and Heroes: the Generation of 1905-14 in France," The French Historical Society, Québec, Canada (Spring, 1986)              

  • "Charles Péguy:  Mystique, Politique and the Two Frances," The Association of American Historians, New York, New York (Winter, 1985)                 

  • "Les Élèves Catholiques de l'École  Normale Supérieure 1905-14," The Université de Lyon III, Lyon, France (Winter, 1983)

Current Scholarly Interests

  • Film and history           

  • Film and masculinity in postwar Hollywood

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