Lucy Carson Library Receives World History Book Collection With Focus On Latin American History

The University of Montana Western Lucy Carson Library has received a collection of books donated from Northern Idaho College Professor of History, Paul Brasil. The donation features over 350 scholarly publications on World History topics including books on African, Middle Eastern, European, and Latin American history.

Professor Brasil earned a B.A. in History and International Politics from California State University, Stanislaus and an M.A. and C.Phil. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). A specialist in Modern European, Latin American, and U.S. History, Brasil has taught many courses in these fields at colleges and universities across the Northwest including the University of Montana Western during the late 1990s. Professor Brasil remembers his time teaching at Montana Western fondly and wanted to donate the collection to a university that would use it well.

The collection Brasil has donated to the Lucy Carson Library originally comes from renowned historian of Portuguese and Brazilian History, Dr. Francis Dutra, who was a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara but passed away in March 2021. A prolific scholar and generous student mentor, Dr. Dutra graduated with a Ph.D. in History from New York University shortly before arriving at UCSB in 1967 where he taught until 2013. His scholarly work focused on imperial, political and social history of colonial Brazil and Early Modern Portugal. During Dr. Dutra’s distinguished career, he became widely respected in the History Department at UCSB and in his scholarly field. For more details on Dr. Dutra, please visit the UCSB website: https://tinyurl.com/2p8z7953. The donation of this collection will enrich Montana Western students’ study of history.

To celebrate the new collection UMW Assistant Professor of History, Dr. Jessica Fowler, and students from the History of Colonial Latin America course (HSTR 230), will be presenting coursework on a selection of the publications from the donation. The presentations will be held on Thursday, November 3, in the Lucy Carson Library from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Please join us and learn more about this new resource.

For more information, please contact Lucy Carson Library Director, Anne Kish at anne.kish@umwestern.eduor 406-683-7494 or Electronic Resource Librarian Rafaela Acevedo-Field at rafaela.acevedofield@umwestern.edu or 406-683-7491.