Ken Clements teaches American diplomatic history, twentieth century American history, and the history of Canada. He has particular interests in presidential biography and environmental history.

Professor Clements regularly teaches the U.S. history survey course (both the regular and Honors College versions), American diplomatic history from the Revolution to the present at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, the history of the U.S. since 1945, a one-semester survey course on Canadian history, the department's senior seminar, and a graduate seminar on twentieth-century U.S. history. He has team-taught graduate seminars in twentieth-century American diplomatic history and presidential studies with colleagues in the Political Science department. His books include: William Jennings Bryan, Missionary Isolationist (1982); James F. Byrnes and the Origins of the Cold War (editor, 1982); Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman (1987); The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992); Hoover, Conservation, and Consumerism: Engineering the Good Life (2000); and Woodrow Wilson (co-authored with Eric A. Cheezum, 2003).

Current Activities

I have spent many months over the past few years in the reading room of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in Iowa working my way through the mountains of documents covering Hoover's period as Secretary of Commerce. The information thus gleaned is to provide the foundations for the fourth volume in the quasi-official biography of Hoover that is being sponsored by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association. It will pick up the story at the end of World War I in 1918, where the third volume by George Nash concluded, and carry it through the election of 1928 when Hoover was elected President. The presidency and Hoover's post presidential years will be covered by David Hamilton and Gary Dean Best. I find the 1918-28 period the most interesting of Hoover's political career, both because of his amazing work in relieving famine and suffering in Europe after World War I, and because of the enormous breadth and creativity of his activities while he was Secretary of Commerce, during which it was rightly said that he was Secretary of Commerce and undersecretary of everything else.

To see Professor Clements' c.v. and the outlines of his lectures for History 112, click here