Historian Aron to give Assembly Series lecture

Stephen Aron, an American historian whose scholarship focuses on the American West and frontier history, will deliver the Thomas D. Fulbright Lecture in American History as part of the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. March 19 in Graham Chapel.

Aron’s lecture is titled “The Tragedy of William Clark: The Missouri Years of Lewis and Clark.”

Aron is associate professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the director of the Autry Institute for the Study of the American West. The institute supports the scholarly, interpretive and educational activities of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. The museum presents a rich cultural tapestry of the American West.

Aron’s research has been widely published in books and scholarly journals.

His books include How the West Was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky from Daniel Boone to Henry Clay (1996); Trading Cultures: Essays on the Worlds of Western Merchants (2001), co-edited with Jeremy Adelman; and Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the Modern World From the Mongol Empire to the Present (2002), co-authored with Jeremy Adelman, et. al.

In How the West Was Lost, Aron examines how the Native American and European cultures collided and coincided, and why this mixed world did not last. He seeks to explain how the possibilities of a common ground were lost and the impact that had on Native Americans, settlers and slaves.

Of Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, the publisher said Aron and his colleagues “take a global, non-Eurocentric approach, highlighting three key themes in world history: cultural exchange and interaction, conflict and resistance, and alterations in the balance of power.”

His current research projects include a book on Daniel Boone’s legacy and another on the Missouri frontier.

Aron earned a doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990.

All Assembly Series lectures are free and open to the public. For more information on Aron’s lecture, call 935-4620 or visit the series Web site, wupa.wustl.edu/assembly.