William Cohen was born in Los Angeles and grew up in New York City. He began teaching at Hope in 1971. Cohen is an American historian whose fields include early American and nineteenth century U.S. history. His special passion is the subject of race in American life. Professor Cohen retired from full-time teaching in 2002, and will spend the 2004-2005 academic year as a Fulbright Fellow, teaching American history in Japan. The courses he has taught include: Early American History, 1492-1789; The Middle Period in American History, 1789-1877 and Slavery and Race in American History. He was instrumental in the creation of the History Department's Seminar in History, which aims at giving all students an opportunity to do historical research, and at preparing interested graduates to do research at the graduate and professional level.
Cohen's most significant research publications are:
- "Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Slavery," Journal of American History, 56 (December 1969), 503-526.
- "Negro Involuntary Servitude in the South, 1865-1940: A Preliminary Analysis," Journal of Southern History, 42 (February 1976), 31-60.
- At Freedom's Edge: Black Mobility and the Southern White Quest for Racial Control, 1861-1915. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991.
This last work was the 1993 winner of the Francis Butler Simkins Award of the Southern Historical Association. Cohen is currently working on a biography of James Miller McKim, a Pennsylvania abolitionist and prominent freedman's aid advocate in the Reconstruction era.
Professor of History Emeritus Bill Cohen, during his
Fulbright
year in Japan