Buzanski, Peter M. (1929-2024)
Date Updated
10-29-2019
Department
History
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
1992; FERP 1992-1996
Educational Background
University of California, Berkeley, 1960, PhD
University of California, Berkeley, 1952, MA
University of California, Berkeley, 1950, BA
Teaching Experience
San José State University, 1960-1996
California State University, Hayward, 1971
University of Colorado, 1965
American River Junior College, 1956-1959
Administrative and Professional Experience
American Council of Education, Fellow in Academic Administration, 1971-1972
Selected Publications
"The Inter Allied Investigation of the Greek Invasion of Smyrna, 1919," The Historian, May 1963, 325-43.
"Alaska and Nineteenth Century American Diplomacy," Journal of the West, July 1967, 451-67.
"Izmirin 1919…," Journal of the Turkish Armed Forces, Spring 1965, 64-71.
"The Knowledge Explosion and the Teaching of American History," Studies in History and Society, April 1969, 41-6.
"The Revisionists, The Orthodox, and the Cold War," Studies in History and Society, April 1970.
Files
Personal Commentary
I was born in Vienna, Austria, where I completed the first three grades of elementary school. Following the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Germany, I was sent to Gothenburg, Sweden, where I completed the fourth grade of elementary school. After being reunited with my parents in New York, in 1940, the family moved to Berkeley, where I learned English, my third language, and completed my public and university education. I became a proud American citizen on July 4, 1945.
After completing the doctorate in history in 1960, a vacancy at San Jose State College was called to my attention by a Berkeley colleague and friend, Gerald E. Wheeler. From that time on, I taught at SJSU where I was eventually given the opportunity to teach in my area of specialization, United States Diplomatic History. Even before, however, I developed an outlet for my interest in foreign policy, through a weekly radio program called "Commentary." It was begun and regularly carried as the only talk program on an otherwise all classical music station, KRPM. When that station underwent ownership, name, and format changes, the program was transferred to the Campus radio station, KSJS.
Faculty governance, through the mechanism of the Academic Senate, has always been of great importance to me. I therefore ran for election, and was reelected to the Senate almost from its beginning in the days of President Robert Clark until just prior to my retirement. Numerous policies, some still in place today, are the result of my Senate service. I have now served on the Executive Board of the Emeritus Faculty Association (EFA) since 1998 when I accepted the offer to represent EFA on the Academic Senate as a voting Senator. At this time, 2009, Ted Norton and I are the longest living Senators in the history of the Academic Senate. Ted is an honorary Senator while I am a voting member. In my spare time I volunteer with the Friends of the Saratoga Library where my responsibility consists of pricing, sorting, and placing on the shelves of The Book Go Round, the Book Store run by the Friends on an entirely volunteer, unpaid position. I deal with all donated history and political science books. Since the Book Store, which opened in 1983 is open seven days a week, it currently nets over $150,000 annually, the entire sum being turned over to support the Saratoga Public Library.
Date Completed: 10/96; Updated: 10/29/2019
Adapted from: Biographies of Retired Faculty San Jose State University 1997: A Project of the Emeritus Faculty Association of San Jose State University. San Jose, CA: The University, 1997.