Course Instructor - Dr. Matthew Byron

Course Fee - $30.00

No Class on July 2nd

This course shows the rising fascination with murder within American society. Beginning in the 1830s and carrying through to the 1920s, Americans shifted their view of murder from the unspeakable taboo to the insatiable hunger for increasingly gory details.  Each class will be centered around a significant murder and its impact on issues like gender, race/ethnicity, and class (among other issues). Ultimately, we will examine how today’s obsession with murder podcasts and true crime are a culmination of what started in the 1830s and was formalized in the Gilded Age.

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Dr. Matthew A. Byron is Professor of History, Dean of Curriculum, and Vice President for Professional Readiness & Experiential Programs at YHC. Dr. Byron joined the History Department in 2010 with an expertise in Early American history (dueling & southern honor/violence) and Ancient Rome.  Over the past ten years, Dr. Byron has increasingly focused on legal history and criminology and has created classes like “America’s Greatest Crimes & Trials” and “Murder in the Gilded Age.” Most recently, Dr. Byron was the architect of YHC’s newest degree program – Criminology, Law, & Society (CLAW) – which is a liberal arts take on the traditional Criminal Justice degree.