About
Director, Institute for Ethics and Global Justice
History Faculty, Douglas College
Current Interests
War and Peace
- Conscientious Objection & Dissent within Armed Forces
- Grassroots International Solidarity Movements
- Canada as a "refuge from Militarism"
Cultural Transfer & Modern Identity
- Americanization & Globalization
- Transnational Corporate Capitalism
- Consumer Culture in Totalitarian Societies
Film/History:
- How Motion Pictures reflect & shape Historical Understanding
Upcoming Events (or Recent)
Instead, with funding from Douglas College's Scholarly Activity Fund, I will be conducting research for my project on Billy Wilder's 1961 film, One, Two, Three (where James Cagney plays a Coca-Cola bottler in West Berlin). I hope to show how the film and its reception offer unique insight on the history of the Berlin Wall.
During the Summer 2009 term I will be teaching:
World History, 1900-1945 (H 1103 - intensive intersession course),
World History, 1945 to the Present (H 1104)
War and Society (H 2220)
In Fall 2009 I will be teaching two sections of the new course on "Understanding History through Film" (H 1180) and a brand new course on "The History of Consumer Culture".
Previous Events
I presented three conference papers in 2008:
one on Billy Wilder's 1961 film comedy, "One, Two, Three" at a conference on "Berlin, Divided City" at the University of Texas-Austin; one on the GI Movement against the Vietnam War at a conference marking the 40th anniversary of 1968 at Vassar College; and one on two generations of U.S. "war resisters" pursuing the American Dream north of the border, at a "Canada as Refuge" conference at the University of Edinburgh.
The Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Edinburgh also screened "Breaking Ranks," the recent NFB documentary on U.S. soldiers seeking Canadian sanctuary from the Iraq War, directed by my wife, Michelle Mason. [Check Breaking Ranks The Film Global National Film Board (NFB)].
Publications
Book Chapters & Articles
"Coca-Cola History: A `Refreshing" Look at German-American Relations," in Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 40 (Washington, DC), Spring 2007 "`Die Erfrischende Pause": Marketing Coca-Cola in Hitler"s Germany," in Selling Modernity: Cultures of Advertising in 20th Century Germany, Pamela Swett, Jonathan Wiesen, and Jonathan Zatlin, eds., Duke University Press, 2007 "Born Again in the Gospel of Refreshment? Coca-Colonization and the Re-making of German Identity," in Consuming Germany in the Cold War: Consumption and National Identities, 1945-1989, David Crew, ed. Berg Publishers, 2003 Encyclopedia Entries
"Conscientious Objection and Dissent in the U.S. Military, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom," in The Encyclopedia of Modern Middle Eastern Wars: A Social, Political, and Military History, Paul Pierpaoli and Spencer Tucker, eds. Forthcoming with ABC-Clio.
"U.S. Military Morale (Vietnam)," "Selective Service," and "Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW)" in The United States at War: Understanding Conflict and Society, Aron Hsiao, ed. ABC-Clio, 2005 "Soft Drinks," in Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia,
Jack S. Blocker, Jr., Ian R. Tyrrell, & David M. Fahey, eds. ABC-Clio, 2003
"Americanization," in German Culture and Society: The Essential Glossary, Holger Briel, ed.
Arnold Publishers, 2002
Reviews
Antiwar Soldier: How to Dissent within the Ranks of the Military, by Jonathan W. Hutto (Nation Books, 2008) and Stop-Loss, directed by Kimberly Peirce (MTV Films, 2008), forthcoming in Peace & Change
Hitlers Volkstaat: Raub, Rassenkrieg und nationaler Sozialismus / Hitler"s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State, by Götz Aly (Fischer/Henry Holt, 2005/2007), German History 26, Oct 2008
"Hell No, We STILL Won't Go: "Sir, No Sir!" Recaptures the Past for Antiwar Soldiers," Review of Sir, No Sir! (Displaced Films, 2005), Documentary 25, February 2006
"Americanization and Anti-Americanism: Spinning our Wheels over Catchwords," Review of Unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten: "Amerikanisierung" in Deutschland und Frankreich (1900-1933) [Unlimited Opportunities: "Americanization" in Germany and France (1900-1933)], by Egbert Klautke (Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003), on H-German, H-Net Reviews, November 2005
Strength through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism in the Third Reich, by Shelley Baranowski
(Cambridge University Press, 2003), in German Politics and Society 23, Summer 2005
Munich and Memory: Architecture, Monuments, and the Legacy of the Third Reich, by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld
(University of California Press, 2000), in Canadian Journal of History 37, April 2002
"Business as Usual? Conceptions of German-American Economic Relations under Hitler," Review of GSA
conference panel, Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 28 (Washington, DC), Spring 2001