How does a scholar research a topic as formidable as the Cold War using the Library of Congress collections?
Historian Kevin Kim recently answered this question in a blog post for the American Historical Association (AHA). Dr. Kim was the Kluge Center’s most recent J. Franklin Jameson Fellow in American History, a Fellowship offered annually by the Library of Congress and the AHA. The Fellowship supports significant scholarly research in the Library’s collections by a scholar at an early stage of his/her career in history.
As Kim writes in his post, his research at the Library of Congress sought to trace the Cold War’s “rich veins of contestation, contingency, and often surprising moral and intellectual clarity” using the “vast, often intimidating holdings at the Library of Congress.” In particular, Kim explains how he used the Library’s collections to illuminate the influence of Henry Wallace and Herbert Hoover during the Cold War years, drawing on the Library’s extensive manuscript collections.
To read the post in its entirety, click here.
To watch Kevin Kim’s lecture “American Centuries: Henry Wallace, Herbert Hoover & Cold War America’s Rise in the World,” based on his research at the Kluge Center, click the video below.
Click video to play
The J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History is offered annually by the Library of Congress and the American Historical Association to support significant scholarly research in the collections of the Library of Congress by scholars at an early stage in their careers in history. The fellowship is named in honor of J. Franklin Jameson, a founder of the Association, longtime managing editor of the American Historical Review, formerly Chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, and the first incumbent of the library’s chair of American history. For eligibility and application information, click here.