Sean L. Malloy
Assistant Professor of History

Founding Faculty
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
University of California, Merced

P.O. Box 2039
Merced, CA 95344
smalloy@ucmerced.edu

Ph. D. (History) Stanford University, 2002 
B.A. (History) University of California, Berkeley, 1994

Recent Publications

Atomic Tragedy: Henry L. Stimson and the Decision to Use the Bomb Against Japan, Cornell University Press, 2008 (Book Website) (Amazon).

"'The Rules of Civilized Warfare':  Scientists, Soldiers, Civilians, and the American Debate Over Nuclear Targeting," 1940-1945, The Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (June 2007), 475-512.

Full C.V. (pdf)

Research and Teaching Interests

My research interests include U.S. diplomatic history and the related issues of war and morality.  My most recent work focuses on early nuclear history as a way of examining the intersection between science, ethics, decision making, and morality.  In a similar vein, I am currently working on an article exploring pre-Hiroshima knowledge of radiation effects among American scientists and leaders as well as a historiographical study of U.S. strategic bombing in World War II.  My next major project is an intellectual history of the New Left and the American foreign policy tradition.

I have taught broadly at U.C. Merced, including both halves of the U.S. survey. I am currently teaching undergraduate seminars on African American History and on decision making in domestic and international crises (with my colleague Gregg Herken) .

Courses Taught

History 16:  The Forging of the U.S., 1607-1877 (syllabus )
History 17:  The Modern United States, 1877-2008 (syllabus )
History 120:  Essence of Decision (syllabus )
History 124:  African American History (syllabus )
History 131:  The History and Literature of the 1930s (syllabus)
History 135:  The History and Literature of the 1960s (syllabus )
WCH 240:  U.S. Social/Cultural History (syllabus )
WCH 248:  Race, Empire, and U.S. Foreign Policy (syllabus)