WALLENSTEIN, Peter 1944-

PERSONAL:

Born May 22, 1944, in East Orange, NJ; son of Crandall R. and R. Carol (Van Duyne) Wallenstein; married Sookhan Ho, 1986. Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1966; Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0117. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, assistant professor of history, 1970-75; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, visiting assistant professor of history, 1975-77; University of Maryland in East Asia, assistant professor of history, 1979-82; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, began as assistant professor, 1983, became associate professor.

MEMBER:

Organization of American Historians, Southern History Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

American History Association fellowships, 1983, 1991; Virginia Foundation for the Humanities fellowship, 1989, 1992; Virginia Historical Society fellowships, 1990, 1991; McClung Award from East Tennessee Historical Society, 1992; Mario D. Zamora Distinguished Service Award, Virginia School Science Association, 1996.

WRITINGS:

From Slave South to New South: Public Policy in Nineteenth-Century Georgia, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1987.

Virginia Tech, Land Grant University, 1872-1997: History of a School, a State, a Nation, Pocahontas Press (Blacksburg, VA), 1997.

(Editor with Paul Finkelman) The Encyclopedia of American Political History, CQ Press (Washington, DC), 2001.

Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage, and Law: An American History, Palagrave (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor of articles and chapters to books, including Paul Finkelman, editor, His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid, University Press of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), 1995; Catherine Clinton and Michele Gillespie, editors, The Devil's Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1997; Kenneth W. Noe and Shannon H. Wilson, editors, Appalachia in the Civil War, University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville, TN), 1997; and Elna C. Green, editor, Before the New Deal: Essays in Southern Social Welfare History, 1830-1930, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1998. Contributor to scholarly periodicals, including Chicago-Kent Law Review, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, and Virginia Social Science Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

Peter Wallenstein's From Slave South to New South: Public Policy in Nineteenth-Century Georgia uses tax records from the state of Georgia to draw conclusions about public services to the citizenry before, during, and after the U.S. Civil War. The author sees government fiscal policy as a barometer of social change during the nineteenth century, and he argues that the Civil War itself, and not Reconstruction, serves as the benchmark for sweeping changes in taxation and social services for Georgians. In her Journal of American History review of the work, Priscilla Ferguson Clement praised Wallenstein's "thoroughly argued thesis" and concluded that the book provides "a very useful and provocative analysis of one southern state during the nineteenth century." A Virginia Quarterly Review contributor felt that From Slave South to New South offers "a refreshing redrawing of the map of Southern history." In American Historical Review, Barton C. Shaw wrote: "This is an insightful book. It is well argued and well researched, and it squeezes considerable sense from the arcanum of Georgia's tax records. Best of all, the book is written in clear and often felicitous English. It will serve as a model for similar studies of other states."

Virginia Tech: Land Grant University 1872-1997: History of a School, a State, and a Nation charts the history of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University decade by decade, from its founding in the nineteenth century throughout the twentieth century. Wallenstein began writing the book prior to teaching a course on the subject at Virginia Polytechnic, and as he perused the topic he brought in more general information about the land-grant system, racial and gender issues, and the changing educational goals of the institution. In a review for Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Melissa Kean noted that the book is "infused with obvious affection for the institution" while it "displays broad understanding of the issues that are at the heart of the school's development." Kean concluded: "Wallenstein's approach has yielded a rarity—an institutional history that is neither parochial nor bogged down in detail." Journal of Southern History reviewer Robert F. Durden likewise felt that the work "does shed considerable and quite interesting light on all of Virginia's tax-supported colleges and universities and on the nation's highly diverse land-grant educational institutions."

Wallenstein is also author of Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage, and the Law—An American History. This study focuses on laws restricting interracial marriage and the way such legislation impinged upon issues of identity and culture. In Booklist, Vernon Ford observed that the work "compellingly traces the legal intersection between race and sex." The book also explores legal definitions of blackness and whiteness and the variations in laws from state to state. Thomas J. Davis in Library Journal called Tell the Court I Love My Wife a "compelling analysis" and "superb legal history" that succeeds at "filling a remarkable void in the literature."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, number 4, 1988, Barton C. Shaw, review of From Slave South to New South: Public Policy in Nineteenth-Century Georgia, pp. 1120-1121.

Booklist, September 1, 2001, review of The Encyclopedia of American Political History, p. 149; November 15, 2002, Vernon Ford, review of Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage, and the Law—An American History, p. 552.

Choice, September, 1987, F. Petrella, Jr., review of From Slave South to New South, p. 189.

Journal of American History, September, 1988, Priscilla Ferguson Clement, review of From Slave South to New South, pp. 603-604.

Journal of Southern History, November, 1999, Robert F. Durden, review of Virginia Tech, Land Grant University, 1872-1997: History of a School, a State, a Nation, pp. 894-896.

Library Journal, May 15, 2001, Thomas J. Baldino, review of The Encyclopedia of American Political History, p. 108; November 1, 2002, Thomas J. Davis, review of Tell the Court I Love My Wife, p. 108.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, winter, 2001, Melissa Kean, review of Virginia Tech, Land Grant University, 1872-1997, pp. 108-109.

Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 1988, review of From Slave South to New South, p. 14.*