Charles A. Israel

OFFICE: Thach 315
PHONE: (334) 844-6768
EMAIL: cisrael@auburn.edu

Charles A. Israel, Associate Professor of History and Department Chair, joined Auburn University's history faculty in 2005. He teaches courses in American cultural and intellectual history, including the history and religion of the American South. A native Tennessean, he completed his B.A. in history from Sewanee: The University of the South and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Rice University. At Rice, he worked for several years as a graduate assistant editor on the Journal of Southern History, one of the oldest and best historical journals in the United States. After two years at Texas A&M University, Israel returned to Sewanee before accepting the position at Auburn University in the spring of 2005.

In December 2004 the University of Georgia Press published Before Scopes: Evangelicalism, Education, and Evolution in Tennessee, 1870-1925 . Eschewing the usual urge to view the 1925 trial of Dayton, Tennessee high-school teacher John T. Scopes as simply a brief spectacle of religious intolerance and a cultural clash emblematic of the 1920s, Before Scopes closely examines the religion and culture of Tennessee and the South in the preceding half-century to detail the trial's place in the development of southern religious attitudes towards social engagement. Before Scopes was recognized by the Tennessee Historical Commission and the Tennessee Library Association as the best book on Tennessee History for 2004.

Dr. Israel’s research has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, and the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, where he is currently a fellow in the Young Scholars in American Religion program. His current research includes articles on southern moral, professional , and scientific education. Meanwhile, he is researching a new book on the social and reformist engagement of southern white and black Christians, provisionally titled “A Southern Social Gospel: Religion, Reform, and the Riddle of Race.”

Last updated August 12, 2008.
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