Charles A. Israel

Education

PhD, Rice University

About Me

Charles A. Israel, an associate professor and former chair of the department of history, joined the Auburn University faculty in 2005. Prior to coming to Auburn, he was a faculty member at Texas A&M and at Sewanee: The University of the South. A native Tennessean, Israel received his bachelor’s degree in history from Sewanee and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Rice University. Israel is an accomplished researcher in the areas of American southern and religious history, and in 2005 his book Before Scopes: Evangelicals, Education and Evolution in Tennessee, 1870-1925 (University of Georgia Press, 2004) won the Tennessee Historical Commission and the Tennessee Library Association’s award for the best book on Tennessee history. In his role as associate dean for academic affairs, Israel is responsible for curriculum planning and development, enrollment management, student learning assessment, and academic advising. 

Publications

BOOKS

• Before Scopes: Evangelicals, Education, and Evolution in Tennessee, 1870–1925. University of Georgia Press, 2004.

BOOK CHAPTERS

• "Who Owns Children? Parents, Children, and the State in the United States South." In Dirk Schumann and Sonya Michel, eds., Raising Citizens in the "Century of the Child“: Child-Rearing in the United States and German Central Europe in Comparative Perspective. New York: Berghahn Books, 2010.
• “College or University: Professional Education at the University of the South.” In Samuel R. Williamson, Jerry Smith, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, eds., Sewanee: Sesquicentennial Perspectives on its History (Sewanee: University of the South Press, 2009)

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• "Before, During, and After Scopes." Journal of Southern Religion IX. (2007; published as a rejoinder to a review forum on my book Before Scopes)
• "From Biracial to Segregated Churches: Black and White Protestants in Houston, Texas, 1840–1870." Southwestern Historical Quarterly CI (April 1998), 428–58.