Nancy Unger

Nancy C. Unger

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

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Email: nunger@scu.edu

Ph.D. University of Southern California, 1985
M.A. University of Southern California, 1981
B.A. Gonzaga University, 1978

HIST 84 U.S. Women's History
HIST 101 Historical Writing
HIST 158 Turmoil and Reform, U.S. 1877-1920
HIST 177 Gay Men and Lesbians in American History
HIST 181 Women in American Society Since 1900
HIST 188S Seminar: The U.S. Progressive Era

President, Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2021-2023

A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (Wiley-Blackwell), Co-edited with Christopher McKnight Nichols, 2017.

Belle La Follette: Progressive Era Reformer. Routledge. 2016

Winner of the 2016 Wisconsin Historical Society Book of Merit Award

Watch a 3 minute film about Belle La Follette

Beyond Nature's Housekeepers: American Women in Environmental History. Oxford University Press, 2012.

California Book Award finalist

Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Revised paperback edition with new preface, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2008.

Winner of Wisconsin Historical Society 2001 Book of Merit Award.

1. “The La Follettes,” in Modern American Political Dynasties: A Study of Power, Family and Political Influence, Kathleen Gronnerud and Scott Spitzer, eds., Praeger Press, 2018.
2. “Using the Constitution to Limit Revolutions in Morality: The Diggs-Caminetti Case of 1913,” On-Going Revolutions in the U.S. and Europe, Marie Bolton and Marie-Elisabeth Baudin, eds.,Paris: Librarie generale de dtroit et de jurisprudence, 2017.
3. “Women and Gender: Useful Categories of Analysis in Environmental History,” Oxford Handbook of Environmental History, Andrew Isenberg, ed., (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 600-643.
4. “The Role of Nature in Lesbian Alternative Environments in the United States : From Jook Joints to Sisterspace,” Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Biopolitics, and Desire, edited by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, University of Indiana Press, 2010, pp. 173-198.
5. "'When Women Condemn the Whole Race': Belle Case La Follette Attacks the Color Line." In Women in Print, edited by James P. Danky and Wayne Wiegand. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006, pp. 281-296.

"Legislating Morality in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Moral Panic and the 'White Slave' Case That Changed America," The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 23, no. 2 (April 2024): 141-169. (access this article online)

“Legacies of Belle La Follette’s Big Tent Campaigns for Women’s Suffrage,” American Journalism 36, no. 1 (Spring 2019): 51-70. (access this article online)

“The Unexpected Belle La Follette,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 99, no. 2 (Winter 2015-2016): 16-27. (access this article online)

"Women for a Peaceful Christmas: Wisconsin Homemakers Seek to Remake American Culture,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 93, no. 2 (Winter 2009-2010): 2-15. (access this article online)

"Teaching 'Straight' Gay and Lesbian History." Journal of American History 93 (March 2007): 1192-99. [Electronic Journal, access the article online.]

1. "Under the Gold Plating: Everyday Americans in the Gilded Age," Presented at the Breakers (the Vanderbilt Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island)
2. PBS: Jeannette Rankin: First Woman Member of U.S. Congress, 1880-1973
3. C-SPAN: Gays and Lesbians in Colonial America
4. C-SPAN Gays and Lesbians in Early 20th Century America
5. The Last Lecture: Personal Reflections

1. Washington Post: "The Supreme Court Letting States Mandate Morals Will End Badly"
2. Washington Post: "The Template for Using White Privilege to Fight Racism"
3. Washington Post: “Tiny Homes are all the Rage: So Why do so Few Communities Welcome Them?” 
4. TIME Magazine: "The Revolutionary Role of the Gay Bar in American History"
5. CNN.com: "When Helping Earth was Women's Work"

1. HBO: “The Gilded Age: A Disappointingly One-Sided Depiction of a Complex Era,” Blog entry with Christopher McNight Nichols, for Society of Historians of the Gilded Age, 29 March 2022
2. “How Women’s Leadership Has Uniquely Shaped the Environmental Movement,” Wilson Center's NewSecurityBeat, 8 March 2022
3. “The LGBTQ+ community: an underappreciated resource in environmental awareness and protection,” "On History,” Institute of Historical Research (School of Advanced Study, University of London).   27 January 2021
4. “The Wilderness Act of 1964 in Historical Perspective,” Oxford University Press Academic Insights for a Thinking World, September 2, 2014
5. “Long Journey to Stonewall,” Oxford University Press Academic Insights for a Thinking World, August 5, 2014

1. "The American Gilded Age: Everything You Wanted to Know," The BBC's HistoryExtra.com, 10 December 2023. Available on Spotify and Apple.
2. “Gilded? Progressive? Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” The Gilded Age and  Progressive Era 5 October 2021. Also on iTunes or Spotify
3. “The Unexpected Belle La Follette: Progressive Model for 2016,” The Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco, 19 May 2016
4. “From Fire Island to Fab Summit: An LGBTQ Environmental History,” Fab Planet Summit, Women's Building, San Francisco, 4 June 2016
5. “Beyond Nature’s Housekeepers: American Women in Environmental History,” Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, 4 March 2014