DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY—FACULTY
AddRan College of Liberal Arts
|
Gene Allen
Smith Director,
Center for Texas Studies at TCU Specialization: Early American, Maritime, & American
Naval
|
The Study of
History renders “the people the safe, as they are the ultimate, guardians
of their own liberty.
History by
apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future;” (274)
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82.
Born and raised in North
Alabama, Gene grew up on a small farm that raised cattle, and grew corn and
soybeans. With such a background it was no surprise that he wanted to be a
veterinarian. Fortunately a college course in chemistry put him on the path to
becoming a historian. Gene completed both his undergraduate (BA 1984) and
graduate training (MA 1987, PhD 1991) in history at Auburn University in Auburn,
Alabama. Studying early American history, he wrote a dissertation on the politics
of the Jeffersonian gunboat program and then spent three years teaching at Montana State
University-Billings. Since arriving at TCU during the fall of 1994, Gene
has been teaching U.S. survey history and undergraduate and graduate level
courses on early American history. He is currently serving as the Director of
the Center for Texas Studies at TCU.
Gene's major
publications include the following books:
The Selected
Papers of John Paul Jones, four
volumes with James C. Bradford, under Contract with the University of Alabama
Press.
Drumming Through
War and Peace: The Life of Jordan Bankston Noble, 1800-1890, under consideration with a press.
A
Fortified Sea: The Defense of the Caribbean during the Eighteenth Century, with Pedro Luengo-Gutiérrez. (University of Alabama Press, 2024),
ISBN 978-0-81732-204-5.
TCU’s
First 100 Years: Images and
Stories, 1873-1973, with Jackson W. Pearson, (TCU Press, 2023), ISBN: 978-0-87565-840-7.
Coloring Texas History: A Texas
History Coloring Book, with LeAnna Schooley, (TCU Press, 2022),
978-0-8756-581-24.
In
Harm’s Way: The American Military Experience, with David Coffey and
Kyle Longley (Oxford University Press, 2019);
From
Colonies to Countries in the North Caribbean: Military Engineers in the Development
of Cities and Territories (Cambridge Scholars, 2016);
The
Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2013);
Nexus of Empire: Negotiating Loyalty and Identity in the
Revolutionary Borderlands, 1760s-1820s (University Press of Florida,
2010);
A
British Eyewitness at the Battle of New Orleans: The Memoir of Royal Navy
Admiral Robert Aitchison, 1808-1827 (Historic New Orleans Collection,
2004);
Thomas
ap Catesby Jones: Commodore of
Manifest Destiny (Naval Institute Press, 2000);
a revised and
updated edition of Arsène Lacarrière
Latour’s, Historical
Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana, 1814-15: With an Atlas
(The Historic New Orleans Collection and the University Press of Florida,
1999);
Filibusters
and Expansionists: Jeffersonian Manifest Destiny, 1800-1821, with Frank L.
Owsley, Jr., (University of Alabama Press, 1997);
Iron
and Heavy Guns: Duel Between the Monitor
and Merrimac, (McWhiney Foundation Press, 1996);
and, For
the Purpose of Defense: The Politics of the Jeffersonian Gunboat Program
(University of Delaware Press, 1995).
He is presently
working on several projects, including a study of George Washington.
Additionally, Gene served as the 2013-14 and the 2022-23 “Class of 1957
Distinguished Chair of Naval Heritage” at the United States Naval
Academy, and has also received internal research awards from Montana State
University-Billings and TCU, as well as fellowships from the Henry E.
Huntington Library, the Virginia Historical Society, the U.S. Department of the
Navy, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and from the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
Gene is an active
member of several organizations, most notably the Society for Historians of the
Early American Republic (SHEAR)—currently acting as the organization's
Treasurer—and the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH). He
is also the editor of the University of Alabama Press book series
“Maritime Currents: History
and Archaeology,” and editor of the University Press of Florida book series
“Contested Boundaries.” Gene’s hobbies include watching
sports (since I no longer participate competitively), cooking (as I still like
to eat), traveling, and gardening.