Organized in 1967 as an annual regional scholarly conference, by the 1970s and 1980s the Duquesne University History Forum had grown into the largest national conference sponsored by a single institution of higher learning in North America. During the 1980s, many of the conferences were organized around a theme, and the papers presented there were published in the form of scholarly books. At the time of the height of its popularity the History Forum drew between 150 to 200 scholars from a half a dozen countries to its three-day conferences that consisted of 45 to 50 panels, each with three to five scholar-panelists. As a result of the more recent changes in the profession, during the 1990s the History Forum contracted and became a one-day affair. In the year 2000 the Thirty-Fourth Annual History Forum has moved back again to a three-day format, but with a specific theme and with no parallel panels. The goal of the organizers is to permit all panelists to participate in all of the panels and partake in all of the deliberations. The papers presented at this three-day conference will once again appear in the form of a scholarly volume.