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 Dr. Thomas L. Pearcy, Professor 

 

SPOTLIGHT

Dr. Tom Pearcy  Dr. Thomas L. Pearcy

Professor of History

Office: 212A Spotts World Culture Building

Email: thomas.pearcy@sru.edu
Phone: (724) 738-2407
Fax: (724) 738-4762

Spring 2013 Office Hours:
M-W-F: 11am - 12:30 pm

Thursday: 7:30pm - 8:30 pm

To visit Pearcy's older web site click here.

My research focuses on the military and politics in 20th-century Panama.  My first book broke new ground by drawing extensively from Panama’s archival repositories rather than relying on archival collections in the United States.  I am currently finishing a book on U.S.~Central American relations which will be published in 2013 by the University of Panama’s Centro Regional Universitario de Coclé.  I am also interested in diplomatic history and the history of the United States’ intelligence community.

At Slippery Rock University I teach colonial and modern Latin American history.  Courses I have taught include:

Undergraduate courses:

  • The Historian's Craft (historiography)
  • World History since 1500
  • Twentieth-Century World History
  • U.S. History 1825-1900
  • U.S. History since 1900
  •  Latin America to 1830
  • Latin America since 1830
  • Inter-American History (North America, South America, & the   Caribbean)
  • The Spanish Borderlands
  • The JFK Assassination
  • Los Estados Unidos: De Un Pais Agricola a Un Pais Industrializado y  Expansionista (Panamá)
  • Historia de los Estados Unidos, 1877-Presente (Panamá)
  • Historia Economica de los Estados Unidos (Nicaragua)

Graduate courses:

  • Panama and its Canal
  • Mexico and the ABC Region
  • The Westward Expansion
  • The Spanish Frontier in North America
  • Political Violence in Latin America
  • United States Foreign Policy

Books:

La Generación del 31; Patriotas y Pretorianos, Universidad de
               Panamá, 1997.  
We Answer Only to God:  The Military and Politics in Modern 
               Panama, 1903-1947,   University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
Essential America. Coauthored with George Tindall and David 
               Shi. W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Historia General de Panamá.   Panamá:  Gobierno de Panamá,  
               2004.      
The History of Central America.   Greenwood Press, December 
               2005.   
The History of United States-Panama Relations,  Forthcoming,   
               Universidad de Panama, 2013.

Articles:

"The Control of Smallpox in New Spain's Northern Borderlands,"  
              Journal of the West 39  (July 1990)
"Panama in the 1930s:  The Generation of '31 and the Changing 
              Political System," Hispanic American Historical Review 
              (November 1996)
"The Smallpox Outbreak of 1779-1782:  A Brief Comparative Look
              at Twelve Frontier Communities," Journal of the West 
              (January 1997)
Guest Editor, Journal of the West's January 1997 issue on Health
               and the American West
“El rechazo del Convenio Filós-Hines de 1947: Un precedente que
               debe servir de lección para la discusión de los Tratados
               Torrijos-Carter,” Ensayos de Historia de Panamá, Coclé,     
               Panamá, (December 1997)
"La Generación del '31 en Panamá: Patriotas, Pretorianos y una
               década de Discordias, 1931-1941,” Revista Humanidades 
               (November 1998)
“Economía, emigración y la independencia Cubana, 1868-1898,”
               Revista Cultural Lotería, Panama City, Panama (November- 
               December 1998)
"Confronting Violence as Political Currency: Students in Panama,  
              1935-1964," L'Ancorage (January, 2005)
"Un precedente para interpretar Los Tratados Torrijos-Carter?  El
              Convenio Filós-Hines, debacle diplomático de Diciembre de
              1947," Revista Humanidades, Panama City, Panama (January, 
              1999)
”Luchando Por Un  Lugar en el Emergente Estado Panameño, 1903-
              1931,” Ensayos de Historia de Panamá, Coclé, Panama 
              (September, 2001)
"Confronting Violence as Political Currency: Students in Panama,  
              1935-1964," L'Ancorage (January, 2005)
 “The Panama Canal,” Encyclopedia of Modern World History,    
              Oxford University Press (2008) (Peter Stearns, editor) 
“Manuel Antonio Noriega;”  Encyclopedia of United States-Latin 
               American Relations, Congressional Quarterly Press (2009)
              (Thomas Leonard, editor)
“Omar Torrijos Herrera;”  Encyclopedia of United States-Latin 
               American Relations, Congressional Quarterly Press (2009)
              (Thomas Leonard, editor)
“United States, Circum-Caribbean Interventions, 1900-1934: 
               Panama,"  Encyclopedia of United States-Latin 
               American Relations, Congressional Quarterly Press (2009)
                (Thomas Leonard, editor)
“The Filós-Hines Treaty of 1947;”Encyclopedia of United States-
              Latin American Relations, Congressional Quarterly Press
              (2009) (Thomas Leonard, editor)

Publications:

We Answer Only to God:  The Military and Politics in Modern Panama

Historia General de Panamá

La Generación del '31:  Patriotas y Pretorianos