William Knoblauch
Associate Professor, History
Office
Mannerheim Hall, Room 415
Contact
william.knoblauch@finlandia.edu
906-487-7318
Joined Finlandia
Fall 2012
Education
2012 - Ph.D., 20th Century U.S. History, Ohio University
2006 - M.A., U.S. History, Northern Arizona University
2003 - B.A., History, Business & Economics, Northland College
Hours
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2:30 - 5:30 or by appointment
Current Courses
HIS 205: World History until 1500
HIS 206: World History since 1500
HIS 211: U.S. History until 1865
HIS 212: U.S. History since 1865
HIS 256: History through Film: The Atomic Age
HIS 256: History through Film: The 1980s
HIS 256: History through Film: The 1990s
HIS 256: History through Film: 20th Century American Sport
HIS 263: History of Rock & Roll
HIS 280: Energy and World Power
HIS 310: 20th Century World History
HIS 320: Rise of American Capitalism
HIS 330: American Environmental History
HIS 340: Cold War America
HIS 350z: Modern Times, Modern Media
HIS 350z: America in the Age of Television
HIS 360: America in the World
HIS 370: The Middle East
HIS 399: Directed Study - Women and Gender History
HIS 407: Historiography
HIS 499: Senior Capstone
Biography
Professor Knoblauch grew up in Ashland WI, where he attended Northland College, earning degrees in Business & Economics (2002), and History (2003). He began his Masters program at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, but transferred to Northern Arizona University, earning (w/distinction) an MA Degree in the History of the American West. His Ph.D. is from Ohio University (Athens), where he was a two year fellow of the Contemporary History Institute. He researches and writes about Cold War politics and culture, and has published numerous book chapters and journal articles. In 2017 UMass Press released his first Monograph: Nuclear Freeze in a Cold War. The following year Routledge published his co-edited collection The Routledge History of World Peace since 1750.
Areas of Interest / Speciality
Postwar American Politics, Culture, and Foreign Policy, with a special interest in Popular Culture (MTV Music Videos, Video Games, Literature, etc.) during the Cold War.
Favorite Quotes
"Slogans are poor substitutes for thinking." - Merle Curti
Advisor Status
I advise students in History, Liberal Studies, General Studies, and the Social Sciences.
Curriculum Vitae
Education:
2012 Ph.D., 20th Century U.S. History, Ohio University
2006 M.A., U.S. History, Northern Arizona University
2003 B.A., History, Business & Economics, Northland College
Professional Experience:
Finlandia University, Hancock, MI.
Associate Professor of History, Fall 2012-Present
Northland College, Ashland, WI.
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Spring 2012-Summer 2012
University of Wisconsin – Richland, Richland Center, WI.
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Fall 2011
Ohio University, Athens, OH.
Lecturer of History, Summer 2009-Summer 2010
Professional Memberships
Ronald Reagan Scholars Virtual Roundtable Participant
Society for Historians of US Foreign Relations (SHAFR)
International Studies Association (ISA)
Certifications
Reader: AP U.S. History Exam
Contemporary History Institute (Athens Ohio) Program Certificate
Publications
"Diplomatic Fallout: Nuclear Power and Cold War Diplomacy from Three Mile Island to Chernobyl," in Making the Unseen Visible: Science and the Contested Histories of Radiation Exposure, Jacob Darwin Hamblin and Linda Marie Richards (Eds.), Oregon State University Press, forthcoming.
"International Dimensions of Antinuclear Activism," co-authored with Kyle Harvey and Christian P. Peterson, in The Oxford Handbook of Peace History, 2022.
"Conscientious Objection: A Brief International History," co-authored with Christine Lombardi, in The Oxford Handbook of Peace History, 2022.
"Book Review: Sarah E. Robey's Atomic Americans: Citizens in a Nuclear State." Technology and Culture, 2022.
"Book Review: Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States." Ohio Valley History, August 2022.
"Book Review: Greg Mitchell's The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." Peace & Change, July 18 2020.
Peterson, Christian Philip, Michael Loadenthal and William Knoblauch (eds.). Routledge History of World Peace since 1750. New York: Routledge, 2018.
Nuclear Freeze in a Cold War: The Reagan Administration, Cultural Activism, and the End of the Arms Race. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2017.
“Spaceship Earth: Nuclear Age Representations of Life After the Apocalypse” in RSAJournal: Rivista di Studi Americani special issue, “American Apocalypse: Nuclear Imaginaries and the Reinvention of Modern America." Online at: https://www.aisna.net/journal/
"Misremembering Reagan: A Decade of Cultural Dissent," in The Journal of American Studies in Scandinavia. Volume 52:2, pp. 63-80.
“Globalizing Jamaican Music: From Reggae to New Wave” in Whitt, David (ed.), Popular Music in the Classroom: Essays for Instructors, McFarland Publishers, 2020.
“Selling the Strategic Defense Initiative: Non-Government Organizations and the Media Battle over SDI,” in Bastiansen, Henrik G., Martin Klimke, and Rolf Werenskjold (eds.), Between Star Wars and Glasnost: Cold War and Media in the 1980s. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
"'I'm Free': The Who on the Self and Society," with Casey Rentmeester, in Harison, Casey and Rocco Genaro (eds.), The Who and Philosophy. Washington D.C.: Lexington Books / Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
"Will You Sing About the Missiles?: British Antinuclear Protest Music of the 1980s" in Klimke, Martin A., Eckart Conze & Jeremy Varon (eds.) Nuclear Threats, Nuclear Fear, and the Cold War of the 1980s. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
"SIMON: The Prelude to Modern Music Video Games" in Austin, Michael L. (ed.) Music Video Games: Performance, Politics, and Play. New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2016.
"The Police," in Moskowitz, David V. (ed.), The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time. ABC-CLIO, 2015.
"Game Over? A Cold War Kid Reflects on Apocalyptic Video Games," in Goldberg, Daniel and Linus Larsson (eds.) The State of Play: Sixteen Voices on Video Games. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2015. Reviewed online for the New York Times Sunday Book Review here: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/books/review/superbetter-and-the-state-of-play.html
H-Diplo Review of Paul Rubinson, "The Global Effects of Nuclear Winter: Science and Antinuclear Protest in the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1980s." Cold War History 14:1 (February 2014): 47-69. Online at: https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/33125/article-review-467-global-effects-nuclear-winter-science-and
“From Camelot to Watergate: Shifting Boomer Politics, 1963-1973” in Cogan, Brian A. and Thom Gencarelli (eds.), Baby Boomers and Popular Culture: An Inquiry into America’s Most Powerful Generation. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2014.
“The Pixilated Apocalypse: Video Games and Nuclear Fears, 1980-2012” in Blouin, Michael, Morgan Shipley, and Jack Taylor (eds.), The Silence of Fallout: Nuclear Criticism in a Post-Cold War World. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
Strategic Digital Defense: Video Games and Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ Program, 1980-1987” in Kapell, Matthew Wilhelm and Andrew B.R. Elliot (eds.), Playing with the Past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
“MTV and Transatlantic Cold War Music Videos” in TEMP: Tidsskrift for Historie (A Danish Journal of History), nr. 06 – 2013.
Awards & Recognitions
2018 - Finlandia Board of Trustees Outstanding Faculty Award
2012 - Contemporary History Institute Certificate
2011 - Richland County Historical Society Grant for Public History
2010 & 2011 - Ohio University: Contemporary History Institute Fellowship
2007 & 2008 - Ohio University: Contemporary History Institute Fellowship
2006 - Northern Arizona University: Departmental Award for Extraordinary Service
2003 - Northland College: Alpha Chi History Honor Society, Wall Street Journal Award, Lands’ End Academic Scholarship
Conference Presentations
Invited Commentator for “75 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Science and the Contested Histories of Radiation Exposure” Conference, Oregon State University, August 5-7, 2020.
Invited Panel Chair to the Conference of American Politics, Lebanon Valley College, May 31, 2019.
"Diplomatic Fallout: Nuclear Power and Diplomacy from Three Mile Island to Chernobyl," presented at the Ways of Knowing and Radiation Exposure - International Research Workshop at Oregon State University, 2019.
“Publishing for Peace: Literary Dissent and the Reagan Administration's `Peaceful Offensive' 1982-1984,” a paper presented as part of The Other Side of the Cold War: Human Rights, Peace, and Antinuclear Activism during the 1980s Panel at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) Conference, UC-San Diego, June 24, 2016.
“SIMON: Lessons from the Definitive Music Memory Game,” invited presenter at the Film & History Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 4-8, 2015.
"Containing The Day After: The Co-Option of an Antinuclear Media Event," invited presenter and panel chair at the History Graduate Student Association Conference of Ohio University, Athens, OH, February 6-7, 2015.
“Selling `Star Wars' in American Mass Media.” Volda International Conference: Media and the Cold War, 1975-1991, Volda University College, Norway, November 20-22, 2014.
“Selling the Second Cold War: British Anti-Nuclear Pop, 1980-1987.” Presented at Accidental Armageddons: The Nuclear Crisis and the Culture of the Second Cold War, 1975-1989. German Historical Institute. Washington D.C., November 4-6, 2010.
“The Science of Salvation: Carl Sagan and Paul Ehrlich Confront U.S. Foreign Policy.” The Ohio University History Graduate Student Association Conference. Athens, OH, May 2010.
“New Media, Popular Culture, and the History Classroom.” The Ohio Historical Society Roundtable Discussion on Teaching. Capital University, Columbus, OH, March 2010.
“Rethinking ReOrient: An Economic Analysis of Andre Frank's ReOrient and World History.” The Ohio University History Graduate Student Association Conference. Athens, OH, April, 2009.
“Synthesizing Protest: Antinuclear Pop of the 1980s.” The SW/Texas American Culture Association / Popular Culture Association. Albuquerque, NM, February 2008.
“Reagan vs. Sagan: Star Wars, Nuclear Winter, and the Battle over Foreign Policy, 1983-1986.” The National Meeting of the American Culture Association / Popular Culture Association. Boston, MA, April 2007.
“What's so Unpopular about Nuclear Winter?: The Failure of Nuclear Winter to Permeate Popular Culture.” The SW-Texas American Culture Association / Popular Culture Association Conference. Albuquerque, NM, February 2006.
Other
Public Talks / Presentations:
H-DIPLO Roundtable Contributor: XXIV-14 on Maar, Freeze!: The Grassroots Movement to Halt the Arms Race and End the Cold War. Online at: https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/11920119/h-diplo-roundtable-xxiv-14-maar-freeze-grassroots-movement-halt
Exploring the History of American Presidential Elections, online at: https://www.finlandia.edu/news/history-american-presidential-elections-dr-knoblauch-finlandia-fridays/
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Presenter and Discussion Facilitator, Finlandia University January 20, 2020.
"The Routledge History of World Peace Peace since 1750" Roundtable Participant, Ohio University's Contemporary History Institute, October 15, 2018.
"Symphony of Destruction? Understanding the Nuclear Standoff - Korean Peninsula," an invited guest speaker at Ferris State University, February 8, 2018.
"Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative and Project ELF," a public talk given at the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University, November 16, 2017.
“The Legacies of Martin Luther King Jr.,” invited roundtable participant at Finlandia University, January 18, 2016.
“Constitution Day,” invited presenter for the Copper Country’s League of Women Voters, Hancock, MI, September 17, 2015.
“'We Won't Get Fooled Again': The Who and Philosophy," with Dr. Casey Rentmeester, The Heart of Arts & Sciences Colloquium Series, Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, MI, April 9, 2015.
“The Pixilated Apocalypse: Video Games and Nuclear Fears, 1980-2012.” The Heart of Arts and Sciences series. Finlandia University, Hancock, MI, March 13, 2014.
“Civil Rights: Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going?” Invited panel discussion participant at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, January 21, 2014.
“Selfie Culture: Four Perspectives from the Liberal Arts,” a public presentation at the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, MI, October 22, 2014.
“Messages of Islam: Manichean Media Representations in the Post-Cold War World.” Invited presenter at Genocide and Globalization. Finlandia University, Hancock, MI, March 13, 2013.