Rate My Professor Robert McLean

Robert McLain is a Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton. Born in Chillan, Chile, he was raised mainly in Mississippi but spent time in the Texas oilfields with his father. After earning an undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University with an emphasis in Marketing and International Economics, McLain pursued various jobs outside business, including waiter, bartender, and deckhand on a Mississippi River towboat. He then transitioned to academia, obtaining his M.A. in history from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1996 and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003. His research specializes in the New Imperial history of the British Empire, emphasizing the roles of race, gender, and sexuality in ideologically supporting colonial power, particularly in India. McLain regularly teaches British History, History and Theory, World History, Historical Writing, and World War II.

McLain's key publications include the book Gender and Violence in British India: The Road to Amritsar, 1914-1919 (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014), which explores gender dynamics and violence leading to the Amritsar Massacre. Additional works comprise 'Strategies of Inclusion: Lajpat Rai and the Critique of the British Raj' in The Human Tradition in Modern Europe (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), the historical study 'Peopling the Picketwire: A History of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site' (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2007), and 'The Indian Corps on the Western Front: A Reconsideration' in War in the Age of Technology (New York University Press, 2001). He has published numerous book reviews and appeared on the History Channel. McLain's scholarship illuminates the social and ideological mechanisms of imperialism, influencing studies of modern Britain and India.