Margaret O'Mara (she/her/hers)

Professor
Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Chair of American History
Margaret O'Mara, Howard & Frances Keller Professor of History, University of Washington

Contact Information

SMI 312A
Office Hours
Email for appointment

Biography

M.A./Ph.D., History, University of Pennsylvania, 2002
B.A., History and English, Northwestern University, 1992
Curriculum Vitae (179.84 KB)

Margaret O’Mara is a historian of the modern United States. She writes and teaches about the growth of the high-tech economy, the history of American politics, and the connections between the two.

Margaret is the author of two acclaimed books on the history of the modern technology industry: The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019) and Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search For The Next Silicon Valley (Princeton, 2005). She also is a historian of the American presidency and author of Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century (Penn Press, 2015). She is a coauthor of the widely used United States history textbook, The American Pageant (Cengage) and is an editor of the Politics and Society in Modern America series at Princeton University Press. Her byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, MIT Technology Review, The American Prospect, and other national and international publications.

At UW, she teaches courses in the history of the technology industry, the history of capitalism, modern politics, and urban and metropolitan history. She was the inaugural recipient of the UW Distinguished Teaching Award for Innovation with Technology, and she is a faculty advisor for the UW Science, Technology, and Society Studies Graduate Certificate Program and on the curriculum committee for the UW Data Science Minor.

Margaret is an OAH Distinguished Lecturer and a past fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education. She received her MA/PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, her BA from Northwestern University, and is an alumna of Little Rock Central High School. From 1993 to 1997, she served in the Clinton Administration as an economic and social policy aide in the White House and in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

When not in Smith Hall, you can find Margaret on the sidelines of her teenagers’ soccer games and dance competitions, reading a book in her backyard hammock (Seattle weather permitting), and hiking with the best dog in the world.

(Last name pronounced “O-mare-a.”)

Research

Courses Taught

Graduate Study Areas

Division: United States

Twentieth Century

Development of the U.S during the "very long" 20th C., from 1877 to the present, with particular emphasis on the changing relationship between state and society, economic and technological shifts, and struggles for civil and economic rights.

  • For a first field HSTAA 522 is required, as well as at least one directed reading in coordination with the HSTRY 596-7 paper.
  • For those working on 20th C. US as a second field, HSTAA 522 is required. Depending on the previous preparation of the applicant, an additional directed reading may also be recommended.
  • For a third or fourth field in this subject a directed reading (HSTRY 600) with me is required; HSTAA 522 is recommended.

Urban History

Urbanization and the suburbanization of the U.S. from the colonial era to the present, including consideration of comparative examples. Students will read seminal works from the urban historiography and key contributions to the field from social history, intellectual history, and political history, as well as from the disciplines of urban planning, public policy, and sociology.

  • Required course work for a first field includes HSTAA 590 (Urban History) or a directed reading (HSTRY 600) in urban history. I strongly encourage coordinating this supervised directed reading to occur at the same time as the first quarter of the HSTRY 596-7 seminar paper sequence.
  • For a second field students should complete HSTAA 590 (Urban History) or a directed reading (HSTRY 600) in urban history.
  • For a third or fourth field in this subject a directed reading (HSTRY 600) is required.

All students of urban history are strongly encouraged to take or audit one or more of the many urban-related graduate courses regularly offered in other departments and colleges, many of which can be found by consulting the database of faculty affiliates of Urban@UW (http://urban.uw.edu). Students also can work with me to identify relevant courses and faculty.

Policy and Political History

Development of the U.S. state and political culture, with particular emphasis on the 20th C. Readings will consider the role of the federal government, contested and dynamic definitions of citizenship, expansion and contraction of the national state, the role of extra-governmental institutions, and grassroots activism on the left and the right.

  • Required course work for a first field includes completing HSTAA 590 (American Political History), or a directed reading (HSTRY 600) in political history. I strongly encourage coordinating this supervised directed reading to occur at the same time as the first quarter of the HSTRY 596-7 seminar paper sequence.
  • For a second field HSTAA 590 (American Political History) is required, or a directed reading (HSTRY 600) with me in political history.
  • For a third or fourth field a directed reading (HSTRY 600) is required.

All students of political history are strongly encouraged to take or audit one or more courses in other Social Science programs.

History of Capitalism

Development of capitalism as a political economic form in the U.S. and globally since the early nineteenth century. Readings will be both historiographic (examining the evolution of economic and business history and changing interpretations of the role of market institutions in society) and thematic (addressing topics such as: the state-market relationship, business organization and power, labor and capital, economic globalization, technological change, economic thought and policy, the effect of economic structures on individual and group opportunity and mobility).

  • Required course work for a first field includes HSTAA 590 (History of Capitalism), or directed reading (HSTRY 600) in the history of capitalism. I strongly encourage coordinating this supervised directed reading to occur at the same time as the first quarter of the HSTRY 596-7 seminar paper sequence.
  • For a second field students should complete HSTAA 590 (History of Capitalism), or a directed reading (HSTRY 600) with me in the history of capitalism.
  • Those working on this subject as a third or fourth field should complete a directed reading (HSTRY 600).

All students of the history of capitalism are strongly encouraged to take or audit one or more courses in other social science units.

Resources & Related Links

Affiliations

Professional Affiliations
American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Urban History Association, Social Science History Association

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