John Eicher ‘05 releases YouTube history lecture series

John P. R. Eicher ‘05, associate professor of European History at Pennsylvania State University–Altoona and 2023-24 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, has launched a YouTube lecture series titled “Western Civilization (1500-Present): From Dawn, to Decadence, to Disillusionment.” The ten-part series explores the themes of abstraction, bureaucracy and control, what Professor Eicher calls the “ABCs” of modern Western history.

Eicher’s current research and teaching interests include the histories of modern Europe, especially the World Wars and the history of disease and public health.

Q: What inspired you to create your lecture series and what are its central themes?

Eicher: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, everything felt very surreal. The mass reliance on abstractions and detachment from the ‘real world’ motivated me to explore how and why Westerners reached this point. The series distills Western history into the themes of abstraction, bureaucracy and control, highlighting how these elements shape our perceptions and societal structures.”

Q: How did your interdisciplinary degree from Goshen College and your time there shape your career and perspective on history and teaching?

Eicher: “Studying the humanities at Goshen and volunteering with Mennonite Voluntary Service enriched my intellectual development. Courses such as ‘Anabaptist History’ helped me develop new social and intellectual questions. My lecture series extends this interest, examining Western society’s evolving narratives over the past half-millennium.”

Q: How do you see the relationship between historical scholarship and platforms like YouTube and what do you hope viewers take away from your series regarding bureaucratic thinking’s impact on Western society?

Eicher: “Platforms like YouTube offer new ways to engage the public, which is essential for historical scholarship. I hope viewers recognize how deeply bureaucracies influence their realities, since they organize, and often sanitize, their work by reducing humans to numbers and resources to statistics. Information is power, and we rely on bureaucracies to record and recall vital information.”

Q: How has the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship influenced your work and do you have any plans for future projects or lecture series?

Eicher: “The fellowship allowed me to focus on writing a book about the 1918 flu pandemic in Europe, using survivors’ memories and digital history methodologies. Creating the lecture series helped consolidate my thoughts on Western history. Currently, my focus is on completing my book, so no new digital projects are planned at the moment.”

For more information about John Eicher’s work and his YouTube lecture series, click here.