Rate My Professor Stephen McFarland

Professor Stephen McFarland is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in History from the University of Texas at Austin, along with B.A. degrees in History and Slavic and Soviet Area Studies from the University of Kansas. His graduate education centered on Middle East studies, specializing in Iranian history. His master's thesis addressed reform in Iran during the 1960s and 1970s, and his doctoral dissertation examined the internal crises in Iran during and immediately after World War II. After facing obstacles in Iranian research due to political events, he shifted his focus to the history of technology.

Professor McFarland specializes in the history of technology, world history, and the history of warfare, with particular emphasis on the history of flight and fuels. His research explores the development of aviation technology from the origins of flight to the turbojet revolution, using fuels as a key factor in advancements that allowed aircraft to perform higher, faster, farther, and more reliably. He also investigates corporate research and development's interaction with the military-industrial complex. His current project on the history of fuels, flight, and the internal combustion engine has produced a manuscript, “America’s Pursuit of High Octane Gasoline,” which is under review. Prominent publications include To Command the Sky (now in its fifth edition), America’s Pursuit of Precision Bombing, A Concise History of the U.S. Air Force, Conquering the Night, “A Peripheral View of the Origins of the Cold War: The Crises in Iran, 1941-1947,” and “Anatomy of an Iranian Political Crowd: The Tehran Bread Riot of December 1942,” the latter two republished in multiple sources. He has served on faculties at St. Edward’s University, Auburn University, the Air War College, and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. At various institutions, he has held administrative positions such as graduate dean, associate provost, vice provost, and interim provost. In his teaching, McFarland prioritizes helping students grasp historical context, event interconnections, and narrative history, balanced with analysis of broader forces through interactive classroom engagement.