Breeden, James O.

Dr. James O. Breeden worked as a professor of American history at Southern Methodist University. Breeden received a Ph.D. from Tulane University in New Orleans, and taught at SMU from 1969 until 2004.

He specialized in antebellum Southern history, and also taught an undergraduate course on the history of SMU. As Dr. Breeden explained, the great benefit of the class was to give students writing experience. Rather than simply looking up secondary source information, students engaged in primary research using university records from the SMU Archives in the DeGolyer Library on campus. "I expect them to improve their powers of analysis and to use creativity to put information together from different types of sources," Breeden said. "If they understand the history of where they are, they will be better equipped to deal with it."

...