The Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History

Harvard's research center for U.S. History and Culture

Research and teaching in the broad range of American historical inquiry

Director's Welcome

Welcome to the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. The Warren Center is a place for the exploration of American history and for the application of historical knowledge to real world challenges. We believe that critical engagement with key issues of the American past is foundational to understanding and making meaning of our contemporary world. Our activities center around the nurturance of innovative historical thinking, research, and writing. Through our guest speakers, visiting fellows, Harvard faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and engagement with the wider public, we seek to foster illuminating discussions about the American past and push historical knowledge in new directions. As the core component of the Center’s mission dating back to the vision of the Warren family’s original gift, our fellowship programs bring together scholars working on US history projects in a spirit of creativity and collaboration... Read More

Publications

Scott Reynolds Nelson (Article) The Awful History of Tariffs and Depressions

It is rare that we can watch the unfolding of a global economic downturn with such precision as we can today. With a 145 percent U.S. tariff on China and a 125 percent retaliatory levy by Beijing, the world’s largest bilateral trading relationship is...

Charisse Burden-Stelly (New Book) Black Scare / Red Scare

Title: "Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States." A radical explication of the ways anti-Black racial oppression has infused the US government’s anti-communist repression. In the early twentieth century, two panics...

Magana Kabugi (short story) The New Brownies Book: A Love Letter to Black Families

Short story “A House for a King,” Inspired by the groundbreaking work of W. E. B. Du Bois, this beautiful collection brings together an outstanding roster of Black creative voices to honor, celebrate, and foster Black excellence. The New Brownies' Book...

Director and Staff

Lisa McGirr

Director of the Charles Warren Center

Charles Warren Professor of American History

Lisa McGirr specializes in the history of the 20th century United States. Her research and teaching interests bridge the fields of social and political history and focus, in particular, on collective action, state building, reform movements, and politics...

Monnikue Marie McCall

Executive Director of the Charles Warren Center

Monnikue "Monique" Marie McCall is the Executive Director at Harvard's Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. She is a Napa California native. Monnikue Marie is a Higher Education Executive with over 20 years of administrative experience...

Marian Wilson

Charles Warren Center Coordinator

As coordinator of Harvard’s Warren Center fellowship program, Marian brings a well-rounded background in music education leadership, digital archive management, and startup operations to support the center’s community of American History scholars. Before...