James Farrell

Professor of History;
Director American Studies;
Boldt Distinguished Teaching
Professor in the Humanities
PH.D., Illinois, 1980
recent American history, American culture;
American Studies
x3143
farrellj@stolaf.edu

As befits a person who teaches American history and American Studies, Jim Farrell was born in Washington, DC. He grew up in Danville, Illinois, "the crossroads of mid-America." When his parents told him that he could go to "any Catholic college within 500 miles," he chose Loyola University over Notre Dame, because he liked basketball better than football. He majored in Political Science, but found that American history was more interesting. In graduate school, he began with American history, but found that American Studies was more interesting, and received a Ph.D. in American Culture from University of Illinois in 1980.

By that time, he was already at St. Olaf as an interdisciplinary clone. Currently, he teaches in history, American Studies, and Environmental Studies. He is known as "Dr. Death" for his first book Inventing the American Way of Death 1830-1920, as "Dr. Megadeath" for research and teaching on nuclear weapons and American culture (including The Nuclear Devil's Dictionary, and as "Dr. J." for his basketball abilities (which are neglibible). He is also the author of The Spirit of the Sixties, but he is not known as anything for that.

Recently, Jim has been shopping for American culture at malls, having just completed a book on the cultural work of shopping centers for Smithsonian Institution Press.

Jim recently completed a course in Campus Ecology
He also knows Dr. America.