Join us in welcoming Thomas J. Balcerski as the new editor of Connecticut History Review! His first issue, Volume 64, Issue 1, is available online and in print now.
Each issue of Connecticut History Review contains original research articles, book reviews, and research notes on the history and culture of Connecticut. The journal serves many different constituencies: museum and historical society professionals, academic scholars, history lovers, graduate students, and educators.
Thomas Balcerski is Associate Professor of History at Eastern Connecticut State University and Director of the Center for Connecticut Studies. Since 2024, he has served as Editor of Connecticut History Review, the only academic journal devoted to the history of Connecticut. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Explored, an independent non-profit history magazine that tells the stories that have shaped Connecticut’s history, and on the Editorial Board of ConnecticutHistory.org, state public history resource written for a diverse set of readers, ranging from students to educators to history enthusiasts. He is active as a member of the Grant Application Review Committee through Connecticut Humanities, a judge for Connecticut History Day, and an organizer of the Connecticut State University Making History Conference. He has been an active member of NEHA since 2015, and currently serves as Vice President.
A historian of American politics, Thomas teaches courses on American society and culture, Presidents and First Ladies, Connecticut history, and New England history. He is the author of Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (Oxford, 2009). He has also written articles for such popular news outlets as CNN and the Washington Post and in such journals as Journal of Social History, Civil War History, and White House History Quarterly. His current project looks at the long history of the Democratic Party, America’s oldest partisan organization.
Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a master’s degree from SUNY Stony Brook, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.
What are you looking forward to as the editor?
I am most looking forward to working with the many dedicated researchers of Connecticut’s history to bring their work to light. I am especially proud that Connecticut History Review has historically been where many first-time authors of the Nutmeg State publish. In addition, I expect that my role as editor will enable me to contribute to a long-standing tradition of publishing research articles, notes from the archives, book reviews, and more. By attending conferences, moreover, I hope that generative conversations about the state’s history will lead to new avenues for publication.
Are there any qualities you are looking for in articles you’ll publish? Or any topics/general subjects you’d like to see submissions addressing?
With the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution at hand, I am eager to publish new articles on the history and memory of this crucial moment in Connecticut’s history. A special issue in spring 2026 is planned for this purpose, though I hope research will continue into the topic over the coming years. Beyond this, I would like to see greater attention to those “hidden figures” of Connecticut’s history, among them women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ residents of our state. As we enter the second quarter of the twentieth-first century, I would like also to encourage new research into the first of this century. The history of Connecticut is an ongoing enterprise!
Outgoing Editor: Marie Basile McDaniel
“It has been an honor to edit this journal for the past three years, and I have relished reading all the articles, research notes, from the archives, and reviews submitted during that time,” writes outgoing editor Marie Basile McDaniel in her final issue’s “From the Editor’s Desk.” “From this perspective, I see a vibrant community of historians, librarians, researchers, and students who care deeply about Connecticut’s past and the stories we tell of its people.”
Dr. Marie Basile McDaniel is an Associate Professor of History at Southern Connecticut State University, where she teaches on early American history, colonial America, Revolutionary America, Connecticut history, and American religious history. She earned her BA in history from Princeton University and her PhD, also in history, from the University of California, Davis. Her research interests are in pre-Revolutionary America, focused on eighteenth century religion, gender, and ethnicity. Among numerous other publications, she has a book review of Pious Pursuits: German Moravians in the Atlantic World, edited by Michele Gillespie and Robert Beachy, in Journal of American Ethnic History Vol. 34, Iss. 2.
“There are many more yet untold stories that I hope will grace these pages in the months and years to come,” writes McDaniel in Connecticut History Review Vol. 63, Iss. 2. “Connecticut has bountiful historical riches, and I hope you have a chance to uncover and share them with us.” We thank her for her contributions to Connecticut History Review.
Find Out More
- Listen to our podcast with former editor Marie Basile McDaniel.
- Individual subscriptions can be made through the University of Illinois Press website.
- To recommend this title to your library, fill out this Library Request Form.
- Ready to see your work featured in Connecticut History Review? Submit original scholarly work here.