Lendol Calder, Ph.D.

Lendol G. Calder, Ph.D., professor of history at Augustana College earned his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1980, and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.

A historian of American consumerism, his 1999 book Financing the American Dream was praised by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for its fresh perspective on credit in American life. Other writings examine the history of thrift, home money management, and the American debt wish.

A leader in the field of the scholarship of teaching and learning, Calder was a 1999 Carnegie Fellow whose work has reshaped history education in the U.S. and abroad. Focusing on recurrent problems in the teaching of introductory history classes, Calder is renowned for developing a new “signature pedagogy” for the field. A sought-after speaker and consultant, he has worked with the College Board, the Social Science Research Council and the Australian Government.