About the Authors
Keith L. Nelson Research Professor; Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Irvine Keith Nelson first came to Orange County 48 years
ago as one of the founding faculty of the Department of History at the University of
California, Irvine. He and his family have lived in Irvine ever since, save for three years (1999–2002) in which they represented the University of California’s Education Abroad Program as study center director in Sweden and in Denmark. Nelson’s teaching and research interests lie in the fields of American foreign relations, Cold War history, the socio/economic impact of war, and religious studies. He has served UCI in many capacities, among them as chair of the Humanities faculty, Associate Dean of Humanities for Undergraduate Studies, Director of the Humanities Core Course, Director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Director of the Center for International Education, and (at the present time) Director of the Program In Religious Studies. He has also served the larger local community in a number of ways, as, for example, president of the Newport-Irvine Rotary Club, vestryman at St Michael’s Episcopal Church, and an AYSO soccer coach. In 2011 he was named UCI Emeritus Professor of the Year. Nelson has authored, co-authored, edited and co-edited numerous historical studies, including The Impact of War on American Life: The Twentieth Century Experience; Victors Divided: America and the Allies in Germany, 1918 –1923; Why War? Ideology, Theory, and History (with Spencer Olin); The Making of Détente: American-Russian Relations in the Shadow of Vietnam; and Re-Viewing the Cold War: Domestic Factors and Foreign Policy in the East-West Confrontation (with Patrick Morgan). Spencer C. Olin Professor Emeritus, History University of California, Irvine Spencer Olin is a founding faculty member at UCI, having joined the Department of History the year the campus opened in 1965. In subsequent years he served UCI in a number of capacities, including Acting Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Chair of the Department of History, Chair of the Academic Senate, Dean of Humanities, Acting Executive Vice Chancellor, and Acting Director of the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies. A specialist in the history of modern America and of the American West, Olin is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of six books and anthologies ranging across such topics
Authors Keith Nelson and Spencer Olin
as reform movements, race relations in California, California politics, the causes of international conflict, and the nature of metropolitan development in contemporary America. His first book, California’s Prodigal Sons: Hiram Johnson and the Progressives , was honored by the Historical Society of Southern California with the Martin Ridge Retrospective Award, which is intended to recognize books about California “that have made a difference in how we view and interpret the history of our state.” Another book, coauthored with UCI colleagues Rob Kling and Mark Poster, Postsuburban California , dealt with the transformation of Orange County since World War II and was selected by the Western History Association as the most outstanding book about the twentieth-century American West. His most recent publication is an anthology entitled Major Problems in California History , which he co-edited with Professor Sucheng Chan, formerly Chair of the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Other publications as author and editor include Racism in California: A Reader in the History of Oppression; Why War? Ideology, Theory, and History , with Keith L. Nelson; California Politics, 1846–1920: The Emerging Corporate State and Trouble in Soccertown: A Lazer McNulty Adventure , a novel for children co-authored with Rita L. Olin. EDITORS NOTE Dr. Nelson and Dr. Olin’s commitment to the realization of the Great Park project began over a decade ago. These public citizens have served as singularly well-qualified volunteer professional academic advisors to the Great Park History Committee. Their donated labor in planning and implementing what is arguably a visionary approach to public history at the Great Park is hereby acknowledged with gratitude, affection and respect.
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