Passion for History Fuels LaHood
The interconnectedness of U.S. history to that of other countries has transformed an academic interest into a lifelong passion for senior Gregory LaHood.
Although LaHood said he has been interested in history since high school, he did not decide to commit himself to a history major until he took American Dreams/American Realities with Gerald Wilson, senior associate dean of Trinity College. He now concentrates on U.S. and Canadian history, and is pursuing a certificate in markets and management studies.
“History was always one of my favorite subjects in high school, but with that class I realized how much you can figure out through history and how much you can figure out about the direction that the world has taken,” he said.
The native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, added that the Caribbean history and intercolonial relations classes he’s taken with Professor Barry Gaspar influenced him to write a senior thesis on how imperial wars influenced colonial South Carolinian slave society in the 1700s. Using microfilm archives of the South Carolina Gazette, LaHood is investigating the impact of two imperial wars: the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of Jenkin’s Ear.
“War was a big stressor on slave societies,” LaHood said. “It’s really interesting to try to capture, in these imperial wars that were years apart, how slave society changed, how war was dealt with by each individual and how the laws changed.”
Beyond his academic interests, LaHood is a resident assistant for Bassett residence hall on East Campus and is co-chair of the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the History Major’s Union.
Although he is still trying to decide if he wants to pursue history or law professionally, LaHood said history will always be one of his passions.
"Regardless of what I do with my life, my passion for history will never diminish," LaHood said. "I thoroughly enjoy the process of learning from the past in order to prepare for the future. After all, history impacts everything."
