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WyoAlumni
Department of History|College of Arts and Sciences

Philip Roberts

Phil RobertsAssociate Professor
Wyoming History; American West; Public, Legal & Environmental History

Ph.D., University of Washington, 1990
J. D., University of Wyoming, 1977


philr@uwyo.edu • 766-5311 • History Room 356

 

Phil Roberts is associate professor of history, University of Wyoming, where he has been on the faculty since 1990.  His specializes in the history of Wyoming and the American West, legal, environmental and natural resources history.  He also has taught courses in various areas of public history and developed several new courses at UW, including one titled "History of Oil."  He holds the Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Washington (1990) and the J.D. in law from the University of Wyoming (1977).

At three different times in his career, he has served as editor of Annals of Wyoming. His first monograph, titled Penny for the Governor, Dollar for Uncle Sam, a study of taxation in Washington Territory (State), was published by the University of Washington Press.  His book on the history of Shoshone Caverns National Monument and federal policies, titled Cody's Cave: National Monuments and the Politics of Public Lands in the 20th Century West, was published in 2012. He is completing a book-length study of the history of Prohibition and liquor regulation in Wyoming. He is co-author (with his two brothers) of Wyoming Almanac, now in its sixth edition (last published in 2010). His edited textbook, Readings in Wyoming History, is in its fourth edition.

He has written a number of articles on Wyoming and Western history, including: "Regulating Liquor: Prohibition Enforcement, Official Corruption, and State Efforts to Control Alcohol after Prohibition Repeal," Wyoming Law Review, 2012; "A Hospital at the Hot Springs: The Politics of Locating Veterans' Health Facilities in Wyoming," Annals of Wyoming, Summer 2009; "All Americans Are Hero-Worshippers: American Observations on the First U. S. Visit by a Reigning Monarch, 1876," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, October 2008; "Wyoming as Community," Annals of Wyoming, Summer 2006; "History of the Wyoming Sales Tax," Wyoming Law Review, 2004; "Wyoming's Pioneers of Prohibition," Wyoming Law Review, Summer, 2001; "Scotts Bluff National Monument and the Coming of Television to the Nebraska Panhandle," Nebraska History, Spring, 1996; and "The Prohibition Agency's First Case," Western Legal History, Summer/Fall, 1998.

He is working on a comparative analysis of oil development in the American West and the Arab Middle East. In recent years, he conducted research and served as a visiting lecturer at two universities in the Middle East. In 2004-2005, he served as a legal consultant for a project on legal education under the sponsorship of the ABA-CEELI in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Phil is a native of Lusk, Niobrara County, Wyoming. He attended public schools in Lusk, Torrington, Thermopolis, Worland, and numerous other towns around the West. He graduated from Cody (Wyo.) High School in 1966. After 1 ½ years at Northwest College, Powell, he entered the University of Wyoming. He served in the U. S. Marine Corps from 1970-1972 and, the next year, returned to Wyoming to complete his undergraduate degree at the University of Wyoming. After editing newspapers in California and Arizona, he again returned to Wyoming for a law degree. During his career, he practiced law, worked in public history, owned a publishing company, and published a city magazine in Cheyenne.

He is a member of several professional and civic organizations including: the Wyoming State Bar (admitted to practice in 1977); the Wyoming State Historical Society; Western History Association; American Historical Association; the Organization of American Historians; Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society; Tenth Judicial Circuit Historical Society; Pacific Northwest Historians' Guild; the Laramie Rotary Club; and numerous local Wyoming history organizations, including the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, Friends of the UP Depot in Laramie and Friends of the Washakie Museum and Cultural Center, Worland. At UW, he has served on numerous university and college committees, including the Student Media Board (currently serving as vice-chair); Academic Planning committee; and several terms on the Arts and Sciences Central Committee. He lectures and presents programs throughout Wyoming, averaging about 50 presentations annually and in nearly every Wyoming county. He has participated in several National Endowment for the Humanities summer programs. During the summers of 2010 and 2012, he was history guide for a History of Wyoming "on-the-road" tour. His weekly column on Wyoming history, titled "Buffalo Bones: Stories from Wyoming's Past," was syndicated in Wyoming newspapers from 1979-84, 1991-98; and 2007-09.

He has chaired more than 50 graduate committees and has served on many others in history, political science, mass media, and American studies where he is adjunct faculty. He has taught the introductory course titled History of Wyoming for all but three semesters in the past 20 years. Other recent courses include:

American Legal History (HIST 4515/5515)
American Environmental History (HIST 4475/5475)
History of Oil (HIST 4535/5535)
Conference, Wyoming and the West (HIST 5605)
History of the 20th Century US West (HIST 4540/5540)
Seminar, History of the American West (HIST 5630)
Advanced Public History (HIST 4060)
Impact of the Railroad on Western History (HIST 4152)
American Jurisprudence (Pol Sci 4090/5090)


Click here for Phil Roberts' Webpage

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