In this excerpt from Whiting Up: Whiteface Minstrels & Stage Europeans in African American Performance, McAllister describes some 19th-century black fashionistas in New York and Charleston. Continue Reading Book excerpt: Whiting Up, by Marvin McAllister
What is China going to do? Now that our Middle East wars are winding down, this question has fixated the U.S. policy community and policy commentators. Even aspirants for high political office feel compelled to have an answer. A substantial historical literature offers solidly grounded insight on how Chinese officials and commentators have viewed the United States from the nineteenth century to the 1970s. Let me suggest three conclusions drawn from my reading of that literature. Each is pertinent to any attempt to interpret recent developments and predict the future. Continue Reading Michael H. Hunt: How Beijing Sees Us: Policy Insights from the Past
Comprising slave narratives, a collection of slave songs, and a call-to-arms pamphlet by a free black man, the DocSouth Books program makes accessible in book (and ebook) form several compelling and enlightening texts from the nineteenth century. Continue Reading DocSouth Books are now available!
The fourth bag, the one for which O’Hair had to pay, contained weapons, essential implements of warfare that speak to the harsh conditions one would expect to find in a war zone. Yet no one has ever asked what is, in my opinion, the most important question: What was in the other three bags? Continue Reading Meredith Lair: What Was in the Other Three Bags?
Throughout the early decades of the twentieth century, outwardly progressive philanthropists like Villard frustrated and were frustrated by the opinions and personalities of outspoken blacks like Du Bois. Observed through the prism of John Brown, their story reveals the strategies and conflicts involved in the greater project for racial equality, the longest and most significant struggle in American history. Continue Reading Excerpt: John Brown Still Lives!, by R. Blakeslee Gilpin
This recipe from ‘Dining with the Washingtons’ is a modern adaptation of a traditional English pie like what would have been served at Mt. Vernon for Christmas. Continue Reading Recipe: Yorkshire Christmas Pie, from ‘Dining with the Washingtons’
Slave children, with almost an alabaster complexion, straight hair, and blue eyes, whose mothers were jet black, or brown, were often a great source of annoyance in the Southern household, and especially to the mistress of the mansion. Continue Reading Book Excerpt: My Southern Home, by William Wells Brown
Müller’s discovery generated little international publicity. Europe was engulfed in a continental war, and the United States remained an interested observer. But as the United States entered the war, which expanded across continents and into the tropics, where the threat of insect-borne diseases increased, military health officials on all sides of the conflict demanded new methods to control disease, and DDT was positioned to play an important role in the war effort. Continue Reading Book Excerpt: DDT & the American Century, by David Kinkela
The virtual exhibit “Documented Rights” raises some interesting challenges for scholars and museum professionals alike. It also reminds us that the struggle “for personal rights and freedoms” means something different for Indigenous people. While NARA should be congratulated for its attempt to do some justice to representing the Native experience, “Documented Rights” sheds light on the difficulty of doing so without replicating settler-colonial/archival patterns of organizing, categorizing, and flattening those histories. Continue Reading Joseph Genetin-Pilawa: “Documented Rights” & Representations of Indigenous History in the Archive
Much has been lost by this failure to consider both of the American constitutions in the Civil War. Since the constitutions were markedly similar in content, the historian has the opportunity to see the document tested in two different societies at the same time. The opportunity for comparisons is unequaled in history. And ultimately our judgments on the role of the Constitution in war should appear doubly sound. Continue Reading Mark E. Neely Jr: Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation – An Excerpt
The ACC benefited from the economic growth and unprecedented prosperity in the South after World War II. Southerners generally had more disposable income than ever and many used it to attend basketball games at ACC schools, or at least to buy television sets that broadcast ACC games. Further, the stronger economic status of Southern states encouraged much-needed improvements in education, including the allocation of greater resources to public universities. One result was that members of the ACC took steps to upgrade their academic programs and prestige. Another result was the ability of several ACC schools to build modern basketball arenas. Continue Reading Interview: J. Samuel Walker on the History of ACC Basketball
In this excerpt from ‘Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston,’ by Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, we meet a family of free black women who possessed an unusual amount of wealth and autonomy. Continue Reading Amrita Chakrabarti Myers: Forging Freedom – An Excerpt
This year marks two momentous and inseparable moments in the history of American race relations: the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War and the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides. That most commemorations of the former have neglected to mention the latter reveals a nagging reluctance to connect too directly the Civil War and the modern civil rights movement. But for white southerners in the mid-20th century, the link between Civil War and civil rights was crystal clear. Continue Reading Jason Morgan Ward: The Short Distance from Civil War to Civil Rights
In an excerpt from ‘Music from the True Vine: Mike Seeger’s Life & Musical Journey,’ biographer Bill C. Malone relates Seeger’s introduction to Hazel Dickens. Continue Reading Bill C. Malone: Music from the True Vine – An Excerpt
Rock Center with Brian Williams airs a story about North Carolina’s history of state-ordered sterilizations, featuring audio recordings of social workers involved in the program that were uncovered in Johanna Schoen’s research on the subject in the 1990s. Continue Reading North Carolina’s eugenics history: Testimonies from victims (video)
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