Carroll Van West was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977.
[1] He earned a master's degree from the University of Tennessee in 1978 and a PhD from the College of William and Mary in 1982.
[1] Van West is a professor of history at his alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University,[1] where he is also the director of the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation.
Van West succeeded Walter Durham as the Tennessee State Historian in July 2013.