Faculty Profile
Matthew Pinsker
Professor of History; Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History (2002)
Contact Information
on sabbatical Fall 2024
Denny Hall Room 218
717-245-1350
Bio
Pinsker teaches courses in U.S. political, legal and diplomatic history. His research focuses on the career of Abraham Lincoln, partisanship in the Civil War era, American constitutionalism, the Underground Railroad and the history of U.S. campaigns and elections.
Education
- B.A., Harvard University, 1990
- D.Phil., University of Oxford, 1995
2024-2025 Academic Year
Spring 2025
HIST 118 American Hist 1877 to Present
This course covers aspects of political evolution, foreign policy development, industrialization, urbanization, and the expanding roles of 20th century central government. Includes attention to historical interpretation. Multiple sections offered.
HIST 204 Intro Historical Methodology
Local archives and libraries serve as laboratories for this project-oriented seminar that introduces beginning majors to the nature of history as a discipline, historical research techniques, varied forms of historical evidence and the ways in which historians interpret them, and the conventions of historical writing.
Prerequisite: one previous course in history.
HIST 211 US Constitutional History
This course surveys advanced topics in US constitutional history from the framing of the government in 1787 to the recent past. Students will study various landmark Supreme Court cases, key constitutional amendments and selected constitutional crises, such as the nation's historical impeachment battles.