Matthew Warner Osborn

Matthew Warner  Osborn
Associate Professor of History
Doctoral Program Coordinator
Humanities and Social Sciences

Contact Info
816-235-6118 x 8
212 Cockefair Hall
American history

About

A historian of early America, Dr. Matthew Warner Osborn is currently writing a book on a fanciful character named the Night Hawk, who first appeared in a radical labor journal in the 1820s. This project grows out of his first book, Rum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early American Republic, which traces the medical, cultural and social history of delirium tremens.

Matthew teaches a range of undergraduate courses on colonial America, the American Revolution, and the early American republic, as well as introductory courses in alcohol and drug studies. His graduate colloquiums focus on the recent historiography of early America and the Atlantic World.

A California native, Matthew received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis. Prior to joining the UMKC history department in 2011, he taught at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA.

Courses

Undergraduate:

  • HISTORY 101 - U.S. History to 1877
  • HISTORY 215 - Getting High: Alcohol & Drugs in American History 
  • HISTORY 302 - Colonial North America, 1492-1763 
  • HISTORY 303 - The American Revolution, 1763-1789
  • HISTORY 304 - The Early American Republic, 1789-1850
  • HISTORY 375 - Success and Failure in Nineteenth Century America

Graduate:

  • HISTORY 5502 - Colonial North America, 1492-1763 
  • HISTORY 5503 - The American Revolution, 1763-1789
  • HISTORY 5504 - The Early American Republic, 1789-1850
  • HISTORY 5581GR - Introduction to Graduate Studies 
  • HISTORY 5582 - Colloquium in American History I 
  • HISTORY 5587R - Research Seminar 

Academic Credentials

B.A. University of California, Santa Cruz (1989)
M.A./Ph.D. University of California, Davis (2007)