Professor of History (PhD, Pennsylvania 1995) 17th-and 18th-Century France Office: 3735 Coleman Hall Office Hours: T: 9-9:30; T: 12:30-3:30; Th: 12:30-2:00 Telephone: (217) 581-7142 E-mail: dksmith@eiu.edu
	All of my courses are managed through Web CT. Click Here to access Web CT.		Welcome to my web page. I came to EIU in 1997, having the good fortune to join an exceptional group of colleagues, including my wife, Joy Kammerling. I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, specializing in seventeenth- and eighteenth- century French history. At Eastern, I teach courses on the political, intellectual, and economic history of Europe and France, including France in the Age of Absolutism, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. I recently have published, with Richard Lim of Smith College, a two-volume document collection entitled The West in the Wider World (Bedford Books, 2003). This interest in the interconnections between Europe and the world is brought into many of my courses, such as HIS 1500 World History: Slavery and Freedom, which focuses on slavery around the world between 1500 and 1900. In this course we give particular attention to the Atlantic slave trade and the
	creation of slavery in the Americas. Also, HIS 3405 Absolutist France and the Wider World seeks to merge a national narrative of French history with a world history perspective that emphasizes France's influence on the wider world and the wider world's influence on seventeenth-century France. You can see samples of syllabi for my courses by clicking on the link to the left. As a historian, my research focuses on the development of French political economy and political structure in the first half of the eighteenth century. Specifically, I am interested in the transition from the politics of seventeenth-century absolutism to the politics of the administrative state and the relationship between this development and the emergence of capitalist thought and language in France. I have published some of this research in journals such as the Journal of Modern History and French Historical Studies and am currently completing a book-length manuscript on this topic. I also have two articles forthcoming in books being published in France. Since 1997, I have been an editor for H-France, a web-based organization supporting the scholarly study of French history and culture on-line. H-France has some 1900 subscribers from 40 nations. Currently, I am Editor-in-Chief for H-France, having responsibility to direct its general organization and plan and prepare future initiatives. In addition, I serve several roles in the H-France Review Program, which produces annually about 150 reviews of books, documentaries, and new media resources. My escape from all of this is my two daughters, Meret and Thea Grace (click names to see photos). Whether it be ballet classes or jumping in the leaves or just hanging, they help my interest in the past always keep an eye on the present.
	Everything Copyright 2006-2007 by David Kammerling Smith - dksmith@eiu.edu