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Author: Ellen C. Bush

June 1, 2012

Interview: Heather Andrea Williams on the search for family lost in slavery

I think the quilt on the cover really captures some of the pain of separation as well as the hope that some enslaved people held on to. There is a little girl’s dress, but no little girl, and the handwriting is traced from a letter sent by an enslaved woman to the family of her former owner asking what had ever become of her little girl. Vilet Lester, the child’s mother, was literate enough to write this letter seeking information about her daughter. She was hopeful that her current owner would be able to purchase the child and restore Lester’s family. One of the sad things about doing this work is that I do not know if Vilet Lester ever received an answer to her letter or whether she ever saw her daughter again. Continue Reading Interview: Heather Andrea Williams on the search for family lost in slavery

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies/History/Interviews
May 30, 2012

Free Book Friday: Magnolia Grill edition

Update 6/1/12, 3:10 pm: We’ve thrown names in the hat from commenters here, on Facebook, and on Twitter, and we drew the name of Franziska Korb (FB commenter) as the winner! Congratulations, Franziska! Thanks to all who contributed. This was a totally drool-worthy comment thread. May we all dine on as Ben and Karen taught us: “Not afraid of flavor!”… Continue Reading Free Book Friday: Magnolia Grill edition

Categories Cooking / Food
May 25, 2012

The History of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud

The History Channel will be airing a three-part miniseries about the Hatfield and McCoy families starting on Memorial Day. The miniseries stars Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton, Mare Winningham, and lots and lots of guns and violence. Historian Altina L. Waller, author of Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900, was interviewed extensively for the accompanying documentary to the miniseries. Continue Reading The History of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud

Categories American History/Appalachian Studies/History/Southern Studies
May 23, 2012

Excerpt: The Corner of the Living, by Miguel La Serna

In many ways, my initial trip to Chuschi reflects the challenges of doing historical anthropology about the late twentieth century. […] the very people about whom I had been reading—and forming opinions—in the archives were still living. Even in cases where the historical actors had passed away, their children and neighbors still lived. As such, I had to deal with something I never anticipated: the feelings of my archival subjects. Continue Reading Excerpt: The Corner of the Living, by Miguel La Serna

Categories Anthropology/Excerpts/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Native Amer./Indigenous Studies
May 22, 2012

Excerpt: James Madison, by Jeff Broadwater

Madison’s more eloquent and charismatic friend Thomas Jefferson would come to overshadow him as a party leader, and later historians would write of Jeffersonian, not Madisonian, Republicans. Yet as a member of the first federal Congress, Madison laid the foundation for a new party and was initially a more aggressive partisan than Jefferson. Continue Reading Excerpt: James Madison, by Jeff Broadwater

Categories American History/Biography / Autobiography/Excerpts/History/Political Science/Politics
May 21, 2012

Interview: Cynthia Kierner on the Life of Martha Jefferson Randolph

The performance of domesticity is a major theme of my book and the main means by which Martha helped construct her father’s public image as a virtuous republican family man while he was alive. Martha visited Washington twice during Jefferson’s presidency. Her presence, and that of her children, helped Jefferson to present himself to the public as a family man at the very time when his political enemies were spreading the scandal about him and Sally Hemings. Continue Reading Interview: Cynthia Kierner on the Life of Martha Jefferson Randolph

Categories American History/Biography / Autobiography/History/Interviews/Women's Studies
May 17, 2012

Carrie Hamilton: Sexual Diversity in Cuba

It would be a mistake to say that Cuba’s revolutionary leaders came clean on the history of anti-homosexual discrimination and violence. But there were public signs of a willingness to revisit that history in a new light. The most famous example was the 1993 release of the film ‘Strawberry and Chocolate,’ by Cuba’s most prominent film director, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, a friend and ally of Fidel Castro. Continue Reading Carrie Hamilton: Sexual Diversity in Cuba

Categories Author blog entry/Cuba/Film/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Sociology
May 16, 2012

Nicolas G. Rosenthal: Reimagining American Indian Culture in Hollywood and Beyond

From the 1910s through the 1930s, hundreds of American Indians settled in Los Angeles and worked in the motion picture industry as actors, extras, stunt performers, and technical advisors. Some were recruited from reservations to make films for a short period of time. They camped in the Santa Monica Mountains, shot films in its canyons during the day, and explored the city by night. Continue Reading Nicolas G. Rosenthal: Reimagining American Indian Culture in Hollywood and Beyond

Categories Author blog entry/Film/Guest Bloggers/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies
May 15, 2012

Interview: Randal Maurice Jelks on the Legacy of Benjamin Elijah Mays

Today is the publication day for Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography, by Randal Maurice Jelks. The book is available in hardcover and e-book. In this interview, Jelks discusses the ideologies and ambitions of Mays, a leader in the civil rights movement and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. Q: Benjamin Elijah Mays (1894-1984) is perhaps most… Continue Reading Interview: Randal Maurice Jelks on the Legacy of Benjamin Elijah Mays

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Civil Rights/History/Interviews
May 11, 2012

Excerpt: Dixie Dharma, by Jeff Wilson

Pluralistic attitudes toward Buddhism can be found in many parts of the United States, but it is no accident that this unusually institutionalized example of Buddhist pluralism emerged in the South, where practitioners are relatively isolated from the American Buddhist strongholds in the North and West and must work together in order to maintain a presence on the landscape. Continue Reading Excerpt: Dixie Dharma, by Jeff Wilson

Categories Asian Studies/Excerpts/Religion/Southern Studies
May 10, 2012

Excerpt: Chinese Mexicans, by Julia María Schiavone Camacho

The complex ties Mexicans and Chinese formed in northern Mexico during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the integration of Chinese men into local communities led to racial and cultural fusion and over time to the formation of a new cultural identity—Chinese Mexican. Racially and culturally hybrid families straddled the boundaries of identity and nation. They made alternating claims on Chineseness and Mexicanness during their quest to belong somewhere, especially as social and political uproar erupted in Mexico, the United States, and China. Continue Reading Excerpt: Chinese Mexicans, by Julia María Schiavone Camacho

Categories Asian Studies/Excerpts/Global Studies/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Latino Studies
May 9, 2012

Interview: Laura E. Matthew on Indigenous conquistadors and complex identities in Guatemala

Researching this book transformed my own sense of Mesoamerican history. As I got deeper into the project, it became impossible to ignore the fundamental imprint of Mesoamerican history, culture, and relationships on the conquest period and beyond. So I had to work much harder than I anticipated to weave that preconquest history into my narrative, not just as background but as something integral to my analysis. Continue Reading Interview: Laura E. Matthew on Indigenous conquistadors and complex identities in Guatemala

Categories Anthropology/Archaeology/History/Interviews/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Native Amer./Indigenous Studies
May 7, 2012

Excerpt: National Insecurities, by Deirdre M. Moloney

Historically, race and gender have had the most significant impact on the creation of immigration policy and its outcomes; but those factors have always been intertwined with larger social concerns about foreign policy and national security, the economy, scientific and medical issues, morality, and attitudes about class, religion, and citizenship. Continue Reading Excerpt: National Insecurities, by Deirdre M. Moloney

Categories American History/Excerpts/History/Law / Legal History/Public Policy
May 3, 2012

Video: Jacquelyn Dowd Hall on the Legacies of the Civil Rights Movement

How we understand the legacies of the Civil Rights Movement depends on how we remember the movement in the South. If we remember it as confined to the South, as just about legalized segregation and voting rights, then its legacy looks pretty simple. It succeeded; it removed a terrible stain from American democracy. If we remember it as being broader and wider and deeper and longer than that, then its legacy looks very different. Continue Reading Video: Jacquelyn Dowd Hall on the Legacies of the Civil Rights Movement

Categories African American History/American History/Civil Rights/History/Southern Studies/UNC Press Authors/Video
May 2, 2012

Excerpt: Making Marriage Work, by Kristin Celello

By 1930 divorce had indeed become a reality of everyday American life. At the same time, however, many Americans were deeply anxious about what the escalating divorce rate meant for the family, women, and the very future of the nation. Such fears were fanned by an emergent group of experts who spent the first several decades of the twentieth century identifying a “crisis” in American marriage. Continue Reading Excerpt: Making Marriage Work, by Kristin Celello

Categories American Studies/Excerpts/Sociology
April 20, 2012

Isaac Campos: Today’s Synthetic Drugs Provoking New Reefer Madness

Have the recently reported bizarre behaviors related to synthetic drugs been primarily caused by these chemical compounds or by the set and setting of their ingestion? The answer is still unclear, but history and science suggest that anxiety produced by unfamiliarity with these drugs and the accompanying horror stories in the press are probably contributing in some way. Continue Reading Isaac Campos: Today’s Synthetic Drugs Provoking New Reefer Madness

Categories Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Public Policy/Sociology