Zeiler, Thomas W. 1961(?)–

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Zeiler, Thomas W. 1961(?)–

PERSONAL: Born c. 1961. Education: Emory University, B.A., 1983; University of Massachusetts—Amhurst, M.A., 1985, Ph.D., 1989.

ADDRESSES: Home—156 S. Rosemary St., Denver, CO 80230. Office—Department of History, 2334 UCB, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80234-0234. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Colorado, Denver, visiting professor, 1991; University of Colorado, Boulder, lecturer, 1990–93, assistant professor, 1993–98, associate professor, 1998–2001, professor of history, 2001–. Member, Business History Conference; member, Department of State Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, 2005–.

MEMBER: European Community Studies Association, Organization of American Historians, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, The Historical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Stuart L. Bernath Dissertation Fund Award, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 1989; Teacher Recognition Award, Student Organization for Alumni Relations, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1996; Fulbright Senior fellowships, 1999, 2004–05; Stuart L. Bernath Lecture Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2001; recipient of numerous research grants.

WRITINGS:

American Trade and Power in the 1960s, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Free Trade, Free World: The Advent of GATT, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1999.

Dean Rusk: Defending the American Mission Abroad, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 2000.

(With Alfred E. Eckes, Jr.) Globalization and the American Century, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, and the End of World War II, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Government-Business Cooperation, 1945–1964: Volume 9: Corporatism in the Postwar Era, edited by Robert F. Himmelberg, Garland Publishing, 1994; The Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, 1997; Kennedy: The New Frontier Revisited, edited by Mark White, St. Martin's Press, 1998; American National Biography, Volume 18, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, Oxford University Press, 1999; The Oxford Companion to American Military History, edited by John Whiteclay Chambers II, Oxford University Press, 1999; and The Oxford Companion to United States History, Oxford University Press, 2000. Contributor to journals, including Australian Economic History Review, American National Biography, Diplomatic History, and Business and Economic History. Executive editor, Diplomatic History: Journal of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2001–; editor-in-chief, American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature, (ABC-Clio), 2004–. Member of editorial board, H-Diplo Listserve, 2001–, Journal of International Sports History, 2005–; associate editor, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 2000–; board member, Association of Transatlantic Studies, 2000–.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Global Games: The Spalding World Tour of 1888–1889 and World War II: A Global History.

SIDELIGHTS: History professor Thomas W. Zeiler has focused his research primarily on American political and military history, diplomatic history and international affairs, and global and world history. His first book, American Trade and Power in the 1960s, examines the less glamorous aspects of foreign trade policy during the Kennedy administration and beyond, forgoing the more frequently discussed Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam conflict for the 1962 Trade Expansion Act and the meetings leading to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT). Nathan Godfried, writing for the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, stated that "the book's narrative proves informative, although it adds little to our understanding of why the United States lost economic power. Although occasionally provocative, the book's analysis remains problematic." On the other hand, Canadian Journal of History contributor Lawrence Aronsen remarked that "this book provides a useful corrective to earlier studies of the Kennedy administration that emphasized the president's inattention to the details of complicated policies and his inclination to follow narrowly defined American economic interests." Arsonsen concluded that it is "a first rate study of the trade policy of the Kennedy years."

Free Trade, Free World: The Advent of GATT examines the agreement more closely, providing a detailed history of the policies and discussions that led to it being put into operation. Forrest Capie stated in Business History that "while the book is well written there is a danger of the story being presented in overly dramatic terms," adding that "too much of the story reads as if the world began around the time of the study. This is a pity for it is an important subject and one from which business historians can learn and to which they can contribute." Although Gregory P. Marchildon also remarked on some flaws in his Canadian Journal of History assessment of Free Trade, Free World, he concluded: "Zeiler is to be commended for throwing much needed light on this very important episode in postwar history." The critic added, "Zeiler's book cannot be considered the definitive history of the birth of GATT. But he does provide a starting point for future historians of what, in retrospect, must be considered one of the pivotal institutions of the last fifty years."

Zeiler's Dean Rusk: Defending the American Mission Abroad, a part of the Scholarly Resources' "Biographies in American Foreign Policy" series, gives an overview of Dean Rusk's education and foreign policies; it then examines how that foreign policy affected the Vietnam War. Mary Carroll, writing for Booklist, recommended the volume "for readers interested in this important era in foreign policy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 1999, Mary Carroll, review of Dean Rusk: Defending the American Mission Abroad, p. 2016.

Business History, January, 2000, Forrest Capie, review of Free Trade, Free World: The Advent of GATT, p. 150.

Canadian Journal of History, August, 1993, Lawrence Aronsen, review of American Trade and Power in the 1960s, p. 372; August, 2000, Gregory P. Marchildon, review of Free Trade, Free World, p. 414.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, winter, 1995, Nathan Godfried, review of American Trade and Power in the 1960s, p. 550.