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August 16, 2012

Sandra Gutierrez: Pecan Rum Cake with Figs

I grew up in Latin America, eating cakes soaked in rum that we used to call borrachos or drunken cakes. Rum, after all, is made out of sugarcane and in my opinion, that is enough of a reason to feature it in baked goods. Here, instead of adding it in the form of rum syrup, I add it straight into the batter, which infuses it with a subtle essence and therefore makes it suitable for romantics of all ages. Continue Reading Sandra Gutierrez: Pecan Rum Cake with Figs

Categories Author blog entry/Cooking / Food/Guest Bloggers/Recipes/Sandra Gutierrez
August 9, 2012

Notes from the Field: Miguel La Serna Returns to Ayacucho

Miguel La Serna, author of The Corner of the Living, recently returned to his research communities in Peru to donate a copy of his published work to local archives. Here, he shares his field notes from that experience, including some sobering updates on his community collaborators. Continue Reading Notes from the Field: Miguel La Serna Returns to Ayacucho

Categories Anthropology/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/History/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies
August 8, 2012

Beth Tompkins Bates: The High Road to Economic Prosperity

To address the human element of production, Ford introduced his Five Dollar Day, Ford Profit-Sharing Plan. When the plan was unveiled in 1914, the world was stunned. Qualified Ford workers would receive five dollars a day, more than double the average wage in the auto industry at that time. When compared to lower prevailing wages in other industries such as steel, meatpacking, or coal mining, the Ford proposal was even more astounding. Simultaneously, FMC reduced the workday from nine hours to eight. Continue Reading Beth Tompkins Bates: The High Road to Economic Prosperity

Categories African American History/American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Economics/Guest Bloggers/History
August 6, 2012

Deirdre M. Moloney: State and local immigration policies affect U.S. foreign affairs

But there is another historically significant dimension to the decision that has received less media attention: ceding to states greater authority to regulate immigration would have represented a significant devolution in federal power. Continue Reading Deirdre M. Moloney: State and local immigration policies affect U.S. foreign affairs

Categories American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/History/Latino Studies/Law / Legal History/Politics
August 1, 2012

Barbara Sicherman: It Happened in the Archives

Well-Read Lives evolved from my interest in women’s history and biography that my father did not live to witness. He would surely have had his doubts about the gender angle. But I like to think that my admiration for his literary interests informed my choice of subject, if not my approach to it. Continue Reading Barbara Sicherman: It Happened in the Archives

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/History/Women's Studies
July 31, 2012

Michael H. Hunt: Ryan Crocker and the Imperial Reckoning

One reason for the U.S. failure in the Middle East seems obvious. The Bush administration embraced empire long after empire’s expiration date had passed. The American project faced potent opposition in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be contained only by making deals with shrewd collaborators with their own interests to serve. The international hostility to the Iraq invasion was intense, and even in the United States the Iraq adventure fell into disfavor. Continue Reading Michael H. Hunt: Ryan Crocker and the Imperial Reckoning

Categories American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Columnists/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/History/Michael H. Hunt/Politics
July 30, 2012

Miles Orvell: From Mayberry to Dogville: The Small Town as Microcosm

Mayberry, Lake Wobegon, Hadleyburg, Dogville—these are extreme representations of the small town and they are in direct conflict with one another. Taken together, they reveal the contradictions of the American twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Continue Reading Miles Orvell: From Mayberry to Dogville: The Small Town as Microcosm

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Fiction/Film/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Media Studies
June 18, 2012

Jeff Broadwater: James Madison, the Constitution, and the War of 1812

For all his genius as a political theorist (we remember him as “the Father of the Constitution”) and despite remarkable success as a politician (he lost only one election in a public career spanning forty years) James Madison has never been ranked among the greatest of presidents. The War of 1812 permanently stained his reputation. Yet Madison’s wartime leadership deserves a second look. Continue Reading Jeff Broadwater: James Madison, the Constitution, and the War of 1812

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Military History/Political Science/Politics
June 14, 2012

Michael H. Hunt: Panetta on tour in an Asia without history

Panetta’s formal comments and casual remarks reveal little interest in this rich past, no insights that would be instructive, and some generalizations that are distinctly misleading if not wrongheaded. Continue Reading Michael H. Hunt: Panetta on tour in an Asia without history

Categories American History/Asian Studies/Columnists/Guest Bloggers/History/Michael H. Hunt
June 13, 2012

Patrick M. Erben: Learning Foreign Languages Increases Inter-Human Understanding

What matters more than the goal of language learning is its motivation. Instead of regarding “foreign” language instruction as a means for preserving academic privilege or meeting the demands of a global marketplace, we need to embrace the acquisition of languages as a preparation for one of the most fundamental experiences we share as human beings—the encounter with difference. Continue Reading Patrick M. Erben: Learning Foreign Languages Increases Inter-Human Understanding

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/Literature
June 11, 2012

Altina L. Waller: The Hatfield-McCoy Feud

What is missing here is any social and economic context. True, the Civil War is the film’s encompassing social explanation, but it leaves me wondering why the set of social and economic circumstances that confronted folks in post war Appalachia is completely ignored. In the Tug Valley, as in all Appalachia and even the entire South, economic decline was a serious threat to almost everyone. Continue Reading Altina L. Waller: The Hatfield-McCoy Feud

Categories American History/American Studies/Appalachian Studies/Author blog entry/Film/Guest Bloggers/History/Southern Studies
June 4, 2012

Cynthia A. Kierner: Taking the Kid to Europe

Although she returned to Virginia and lived the vast bulk of her life as a plantation mistress in rural Albemarle County, as a widow she chose to spend most of her time in Boston or Washington, D.C. And she often recalled her time in Paris as “the brightest part” of her life. Continue Reading Cynthia A. Kierner: Taking the Kid to Europe

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Biography / Autobiography/Guest Bloggers/History/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
April 30, 2012

Christian McWhirter: Did They Get It Right?: Civil War Music in Popular Film

Glory is noteworthy as one of the few popular representations of the war to include African American music. The Civil War had a tremendous impact on black music but the songs created and sung by African Americans are rarely included in books and films. Although Burns makes use of black spirituals, even he does not incorporate those that were actually most popular among slaves, freedpeople, and USCTs. Continue Reading Christian McWhirter: Did They Get It Right?: Civil War Music in Popular Film

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Film/Guest Bloggers/Music/Video
April 26, 2012

Mary J. Henold: The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is the Scapegoat for Our Disobedience

I believe, at the root of this assault on the sisters’ autonomy, is a bewilderment and anger at the hierarchy’s loss of power over laywomen. Continue Reading Mary J. Henold: The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is the Scapegoat for Our Disobedience

Categories Author blog entry/Christian Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Religion/Women's Studies
April 25, 2012

Jeff Broadwater: James Madison, Secular Humanist

James Madison won the presidency in a landslide in 1808, prevailed in a closer race in 1812, and left office as a revered elder statesman four years later. Among his most appealing traits was a lifelong commitment to religious freedom, but if we could raise him from the dead–never mind the Twenty-Second Amendment limiting presidents to two terms–his views on the separation of church and state might well keep him out of today’s White House. Continue Reading Jeff Broadwater: James Madison, Secular Humanist

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Political Science/Politics/Religion
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
April 19, 2012

Karen L. Cox: Black Domestic in a Can: A South Carolina Ad Agency “Helps” Glory Foods

Who is the company trying to reach with these commercials except, perhaps, all those white women who read ‘The Help’ and are looking to recapture some of that for themselves? It’s certainly an interesting marketing ploy. Perhaps that is the point. Continue Reading Karen L. Cox: Black Domestic in a Can: A South Carolina Ad Agency “Helps” Glory Foods

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Author blog entry/Columnists/Cooking / Food/Guest Bloggers/Karen L. Cox/Media Studies/Southern Studies
April 18, 2012

Paul and Angela Knipple: We Are All Southerners Here

Everyone loves their mama and their grandmama, but we’ve always felt like mamas and grandmamas have a special place in the southern kitchen and the southern heart. That legacy of family as a source of strength is especially southern. We heard stories from so many people who have maintained a strong connection with their mothers and grandmothers despite being half a world away. Continue Reading Paul and Angela Knipple: We Are All Southerners Here

Categories Author blog entry/Cooking / Food/Global Studies/Guest Bloggers/Southern Studies