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Kenneth J. Cmiel Papers

 Collection
Identifier: RG99.0042

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Scope and Contents

The Papers of Kenneth J. Cmiel consist of his published and unpublished writings, book reviews, correspondence, and materials pertaining to courses he taught in the University of Iowa Department of History. At the time of his death in 2006, Prof. Cmiel was working on a book chronicling the history of human rights in the twentieth century, including a discussion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Dates

  • Creation: 1986-2005

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials.

Biographical / Historical

Kenneth J. Cmiel was a professor of history and American studies at the University of Iowa and director of the U.I. Center for Human Rights. In 1977 he received the B.A. in history from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago in 1986. His dissertation won the Society of American Historians' Allan Nevins Prize in 1987. He joined the U.I. faculty that same year.

His first book, Democratic Eloquence: The Fight Over Popular Speech in Nineteenth-Century America, was based on his dissertation. At the time of his death he was writing "Ambiguous Origins: The United Nations and Human Rights" (working title), chronicling the political ideas that contributed to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (U.D.H.R.). Though unfinished, portions of the planned book began to emerge as articles, including "The Emergence of Human Rights Politics in the United States," which appeared in a special issue of the Journal of American History in 1999.

Mr. Cmiel served as chair of the U.I. Department of History from 2000 to 2003. In 2004 he became director of the U.I. Center for Human Rights. He was the U.I. Presidential Lecturer in 2005 and during his career won many of the University's other top research and scholarship awards.

Kenneth Cmiel was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 31, 1954, the son of Henry and Jean (Gasiorek) Cmiel. In 1980 he married Anne Duggan and they had three children. He died on February 4, 2006, at age 51, due to a previously-undetected brain tumor.

Extent

14.25 Linear Feet

Abstract

University of Iowa professor of history and director of the UI Center for Human Rights.

Method of Acquisition

The Papers of Kenneth J. Cmiel were transferred to the University Archives from the UI Dept. of History as Accessions 2006-58 and 2007-40. The collection was processed by Alexis Bushnell and David McCartney. Guide posted to the Internet November 2007.

Related Materials

Cmiel, Kenneth. A Home of Another Kind: One Chicago Orphanage and the Tangle of Child Welfare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Cmiel, Kenneth. Democratic Eloquence: The Fight Over Popular Speech in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: W. Morrow, 1990.

Records of the UI Center for Human Rights (RG 23.14)

Folder, "Cmiel, Kenneth," in the Faculty and Staff Vertical Files Collection (RG01.0015.003)

Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Repository Details

Part of the University of Iowa Archives Repository

Contact:
100 Main Library
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City IA 52242
319-335-5921