Rate My Professor Steve Tripp

Steve Tripp served as Professor of History in the History Department at Grand Valley State University from 1990 until his retirement at the end of the Winter 2025 semester. He earned his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1990, M.A. from the University of California at Davis in 1985, and B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1979. Throughout his thirty-five-year tenure, Tripp taught courses in American social and cultural history and American masculinities. He also regularly offered Writing History (HST 200) and History Research Methods (HST 290). Tripp introduced upper-division courses in African American history, labor history, sports history, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. He played a pivotal role in creating the History Department’s 100-level curriculum and spearheading the Faculty Teaching and Learning Center. An inspiring and creative teacher in both the History Department and the Honors College, he embraced experiential, high-impact learning practices long before they became standard. His teaching proved transformative for countless students, who continue to share vivid accounts of its impact.

Tripp specialized in U.S. social and cultural history, with particular interests in American masculinities and the world of the 'Forgotten Man,' the down-and-out men who symbolized the Great Depression. At the time of his retirement, he was writing about how Americans explored and defined the American Way during the Depression years, focusing especially on the films of Frank Capra and Robert Riskin. He authored two books: Yankee Town, Southern City: Race and Class Relations in Civil War Lynchburg (New York University Press, 1996) and Ty Cobb, Baseball, and American Manhood (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016). Recognized as arguably the most graceful writer among his colleagues, Tripp served as a model teacher-scholar, mentored McNair Scholars, contributed to editorial boards such as the Grand Valley Journal of History, and received service awards for his contributions to the university.