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Dr. Richard Crane has always had an interest in history. “History was my favorite subject in school,” he says. “I can remember growing up wanting to study history, especially European history.”
Dr. Crane now  gets to live out his passion every day. As a professor of history at Greensboro College for the past seven years, Crane not only gets to study history but also gets to teach it.
As a teacher and scholar, Dr. Crane does his best work. He receives high praise from his students for being a fascinating lecturer. The reason for this, perhaps, is that he enjoys doing work across boundaries and incorporating more than one discipline in his lessons.
“Teaching cross-disciplinary courses with other professors is something that benefits everyone,” he says. “This allows for consistent variety in subject matter for both the professors and the students.”
Recently, Dr. Crane completed research for publication in The Catholic Historical Review. His article, “La Croix and the Swastika: The Ambiguities of Catholic Responses to the Fall of France,” was published in January 2004.
Religion, and in particular religious history, is an area of special interest for Crane. “I see history less as battles and dates, and more as ideas and personalities,” he asserts. “This is why I tend to gravitate toward ethics and theology from the vantage point of my own historical discipline.”
It should come as no surprise that Dr. Crane continues to study the influence of religion on historical events. His current research deals with Jacques Maritain, a French Catholic philosopher who was one of the principal architects of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Dr. Crane’s research centers on the many implications religious ideas have had, and continue to have, on history. He says that the 20th century is interesting because it seems to be the end of the modern era, with World War II — and within it, the Holocaust — being the fulcrum event. And with modern history, a global approach may be helpful in understanding cultures and societies.
Dr. Crane says, “The study of western as well as non- western religion is growing more important because religious, and sometimes anti-religious, movements have always played a key role in history.” He adds that the 21st century is already seeing a growing influence of religion in world affairs, and perhaps American electoral politics as well.
A graduate of Eastern Connecticut State University, Crane earned the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Connecticut. It was there, at the University of Connecticut, that he began his teaching career as a visiting professor. Dr. Crane left the Huskies for a job at Bowling Green State University.
Before arriving at Greensboro College, he also taught at Grambling State University. John Lukács, a famed World War II and Winston Churchill scholar, is who Dr. Crane lists as his favorite author.
And his favorite class to teach? “Of course I enjoy all of the classes I teach,” he says, “but I especially like teaching Modern Political Thought.”
Dr. Crane lives in Greensboro with his family. His wife, Piper, is even a graduate of the College’s Teacher Education program and is certified to teach art. He is the father of a six-year-old daughter, Delaney, and of Rory, his two-year-old son.
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