Office of the Historian

The Office of the Historian is staffed by professional historians who are experts in the history of U.S. foreign policy and the Department of State and possess unparalleled research experience in classified and unclassified government records. The Office’s historians work closely with other federal government history offices, the academic historical community, and specialists across the globe. The Office is directed by Dr. Stephen Randolph, The Historian of the U.S. Department of State.

"The site contains an electronic version of Foreign Relations of the United States, the official documentary record of major US foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity . . . from 1861 through the Carter presidency. Other sections include the "Department History" which provides a brief history of the department, biographies of the secretaries of state, a list of principal diplomatic officers and chiefs of missions, overseas travels of the last 30 secretaries and presidents since Theodore Roosevelt, and visits to this country by foreign leaders since 1874.  The travels for the secretaries and the presidents are organized in chronological order and by destination - -  The "Key Milestones" section features essays on major points in American diplomatic history - - The "Guide to Countries" section provides an overview of "diplomatic recognition and the establishment and maintenance of diplomatic relations between the United States and states of the world, from 1776 to the present"   - - Finally, "More Resources" offers information on the background of the office; an option to browse collections by people, places, and topic tags; lists of hosted conferences; contact information; an FAQ list; resources for electronic application developers; educational resources; and a link to a web page providing information on the Open Government Initiative." Recommended in the November 2014 issue of Choice.