Woods, Randall Bennett 1944-

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Woods, Randall Bennett 1944-

PERSONAL:

Born October 10, 1944, in Galveston, TX. Education: University of Texas, B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Fayetteville, AR. Office— Department of History, University of Arkansas, 403 Old Main, Fayetteville, AR 72701. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and author. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, professor of history, beginning 1971, John A. Cooper Professor of American History, beginning 1984, Distinguished Professor of History, beginning 1995, J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, associate dean, 1979-82, dean, 2000—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for the Humanities senior fellow, 1981; fellow of the Atlantic Council Conference for Academic Associates, Brus- sels, Belgium, 1985; Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching and Research, University of Arkansas, 1994; Teaching Academy Achievement Award, University of Arkansas.

WRITINGS:

The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor": The United States and Argentina, 1941-1945, Regents Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1979.

A Black Odyssey: John Lewis Waller and the Promise of American Life, 1878-1900, Regents Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1981.

A Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941-1946, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1990.

(With Howard Jones) Dawning of the Cold War: The United States' Quest for Order, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1991.

Fulbright: A Biography, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Foreign Policy, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Willard B. Gatewood) America Interpreted: A Concise History with Readings, two volumes, Harcourt Brace College Publishers (Fort Worth, TX), 1998.

Quest for Identity: America since 1945, Harcourt Brace College Publishers (Fort Worth, TX), 2001.

(Editor) Vietnam and the American Political Tradition: The Politics of Dissent, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

LBJ: Architect of American Ambition, Free Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Randall Bennett Woods has taught history at the University of Arkansas since 1971, gaining the rank of Distinguished Professor in 1995. Woods has written a number of books, focusing in particular on American history and key historical figures of the twentieth century, particularly in war time.

Fulbright: A Biography offers a look into the life and career of J. William Fulbright, who served as a senator from Arkansas from 1945 to 1975, and also as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This chairmanship put Fulbright in the position of affecting U.S. foreign policy during the early years of the Cold War. A contributor to the Economist referred to Woods's effort as "a perceptive, very full biography." A critic for Publishers Weekly called the book an "engrossing, fair-minded biography." J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Foreign Policy is an abbreviated version of the longer biography. Esmond Wright in Contemporary Review remarked: "Woods has done a notable job: a dramatic biography of a highly-cultured internationalist is accompanied by a masterly dissection of U.S. foreign policy since the end of World War II."

In LBJ: Architect of American Ambition, Woods turns his attention to former president Lyndon B. Johnson, delving into his motivations and providing an image of him that is more sympathetic than that found in other biographies, all the while showing how Johnson was ultimately responsible for his own political downfall. Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, described the book as "thorough, astute, and readable." A critic for Kirkus Reviews remarked that the book "has many virtues," concluding that it was "sympathetic [and] well-rounded." Karl Helicher, writing in the Library Journal, found Woods' effort to be "a sympathetic portrayal of Lyndon Johnson as a progressive legislator and president."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, June, 1980, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor": The United States and Argentina, 1941-1945 p. 735; February, 1982, review of A Black Odyssey: John Lewis Waller and the Promise of American Life, 1878-1900, p. 270; February, 1992, Michael J. Hogan, review of A Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941-1946, p. 161, and John Lewis Gaddis, review of Dawning of the Cold War: The United States' Quest for Order, p. 312; February, 1997, William D. Miscamble, review of Fulbright: A Biography, p. 215.

Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, April, 1981, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 550.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1980, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 169; May, 1983, Robert G. Sherer, review of A Black Odyssey, p. 235.

Book World, August 13, 1995, review of Fulbright, p. 1; September 17, 2006, "His Great Society: An Epic Biography Makes the Argument That Lyndon Johnson Was a Towering President," p. 8.

Booklist, August 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of LBJ: Architect of American Ambition, p. 33.

Business History Review, winter, 1992, Leslie S. Pressnell, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 816.

Choice, November, 1979, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 1218; September, 1981, review of A Black Odyssey, p. 154; September, 1991, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 182; September, 2003, P.B. Levy, review of Vietnam and the American Political Tradition: The Politics of Dissent, p. 236.

Contemporary Review, August, 1998, Esmond Wright, review of J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Foreign Policy, p. 104.

Diplomatic History, summer, 1991, Bradford Perkins, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 433; winter, 1998, Thomas J. Knock, review of Fulbright, p. 137.

Economic History Review, November, 1991, G.C. Peden, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 758.

Economist, September 16, 1995, review of Fulbright, p. 99.

English Historical Review, April, 1994, review of The Changing of the Guard, p. 532.

Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, summer, 1991, Jamie Bronstein, review of A Changing of the Guard, pp. 225-28.

Foreign Affairs, November-December, 1995, David C. Hendrickson, review of Fulbright, p. 124.

Government and Opposition, summer, 1996, Nicholas A.H. Stacey, review of Fulbright, p. 375.

Hispanic American Historical Review, February, 1981, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 145.

Historian, November, 1980, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 150; February, 1983, review of A Black Odyssey, p. 268; winter, 1992, Thomas M. Leonard, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 396; autumn, 1992, John W. Coogan, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 180; winter, 1997, Jacob H. Dorn, review of Fulbright, p. 447.

History: Review of New Books, November, 1979, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 32; fall, 1991, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 8.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, February, 1992, John W. Young, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 174.

International Affairs, January, 1992, Nigel Clive, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 169; May, 2006, Axel R. Schafer, review of Quest for Identity: America since 1945, p. 613.

International History Review, November, 1991, review of A Changing of the Guard, pp. 845-848.

Journal of American History, March, 1980, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 981; June, 1982, Juliet E.K. Walker, review of A Black Odyssey, p. 176; September, 1991, Donald W. White, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 729; March, 1992, Robert C. Hilderbrand, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 1506; September, 1996, Kai Bird, review of Fulbright, p. 580; June, 2004, Melvin Small, review of Vietnam and the American Political Tradition, p. 325.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, winter, 1992, James L. Gormly, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 541; summer, 1992, Arnold A. Offner, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 217; autumn, 2004, Gary R. Hess, review of Vietnam and the American Political Tradition, p. 322.

Journal of Modern History, September, 1993, Peter L. Hahn, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 617.

Journal of Politics, May, 2001, Daniel McIntosh, review of J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Foreign Policy, p. 696.

Journal of Southern History, February, 1997, Frank E. Vandiver, review of Fulbright, p. 206.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1995, review of Fulbright, p. 701; June 1, 2006, review of LBJ, p. 566.

Legal Times, January 22, 1996, Bruce Fein, review of Fulbright, p. 66.

Library Journal, June 1, 1979, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 1255; December 15, 1980, review of A Black Odyssey, p. 2566; July, 1990, J.K. Sweeney, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 111; January, 1991, Richard Weitz, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 124; July 1, 2006, Karl Helicher, review of LBJ, p. 88.

New Republic, April 15, 1996, James Goodman, review of Fulbright, p. 37.

Pacific Historical Review, August, 1981, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 373; August, 1983, review of A Black Odyssey, p. 322; November, 2005, T. Christopher Jespersen, review of Vietnam and the American Political Tradition, p. 47.

Perspectives on Political Science, winter, 1992, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 43.

Political Science Quarterly, spring, 1992, Betty Miller Unterberger, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 164.

Prairie Schooner, spring, 1992, review of Dawning of the Cold War, p. 164.

Publishers Weekly, June 12, 1995, review of Fulbright, p. 55; May 29, 2006, review of LBJ, p. 47.

Reviews in American History, September, 1991, Stephen Pelz, review of A Changing of the Guard, p. 419.

Social Science Quarterly, June, 1980, review of The Roosevelt Foreign-Policy Establishment and the "Good Neighbor," p. 173.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), August 27, 1995, review of Fulbright, p. 1.

Wall Street Journal, August 7, 1995, Philip Terzian, review of Fulbright, p. A11, 13.

Western Historical Quarterly, April, 1982, review of A Black Odyssey, p. 195.