Category: History

Daniel Livesay: Meghan Markle and the Long History of American Brides of Color in Britain

Today we welcome a guest post from Daniel Livesay, author of Children of Uncertain Fortune:  Mixed-Race Jamaicans in Britain and the Atlantic Family, 1733-1833, published by our friends at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. By tracing the largely forgotten eighteenth-century migration of elite mixed-race individuals from Jamaica to Great Britain, Children of Uncertain Fortune reinterprets the… Continue Reading Daniel Livesay: Meghan Markle and the Long History of American Brides of Color in Britain

Alice Elizabeth Malavasic: The Republic’s Need for Civility

Today we welcome a guest blog post from Alice Elizabeth Malavasic, author of The F Street Mess:  How Southern Senators Rewrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Pushing back against the idea that the Slave Power conspiracy was merely an ideological construction, The F Street Mess argues that some southern politicians in the 1850s did indeed hold an inordinate amount of power in… Continue Reading Alice Elizabeth Malavasic: The Republic’s Need for Civility

#HaitiSyllabus — Haitian Studies titles from UNC Press

#HaitiSyllabus Haitian Studies titles from UNC Press The University of North Carolina Press has prided itself on accumulating and disseminating books that range in field and scope.  We have made it our mission to contribute to the ongoing debates and discussions within and outside of the academy.  In light of President Trump’s remarks regarding Haiti, El Salvador, and various African… Continue Reading #HaitiSyllabus — Haitian Studies titles from UNC Press

Megan Raby: The Tropical Origins of the Idea of Biodiversity

Today we welcome a guest blog post from Megan Raby, author of American Tropics:  The Caribbean Roots of Biodiversity Science. Biodiversity has been a key concept in international conservation since the 1980s, yet historians have paid little attention to its origins. Uncovering its roots in tropical fieldwork and the southward expansion of U.S. empire at the turn of the twentieth… Continue Reading Megan Raby: The Tropical Origins of the Idea of Biodiversity

Jessica Ziparo: Advice from the 1860s

Today we welcome a guest post from Jessica Ziparo, author of This Grand Experiment:  When Women Entered the Federal Workforce in Civil War–Era Washington, D.C. In the volatility of the Civil War, the federal government opened its payrolls to women. Thousands of female applicants from across the country flooded Washington with applications. In This Grand Experiment, Jessica Ziparo traces the… Continue Reading Jessica Ziparo: Advice from the 1860s

Adam I. P. Smith: Who in Civil War America really believed in “States’ Rights”?

For our first post of the new year, we welcome a guest post from Adam I.P. Smith, author of The Stormy Present:  Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846–1865. In The Stormy Present, an engaging and nuanced political history of Northern communities in the Civil War era, Adam I. P. Smith offers a new interpretation of the… Continue Reading Adam I. P. Smith: Who in Civil War America really believed in “States’ Rights”?

Adam I. P. Smith: The Conservatism of Revolution

Today we welcome a guest post from Adam I.P. Smith, author of The Stormy Present:  Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846–1865. In The Stormy Present, an engaging and nuanced political history of Northern communities in the Civil War era, Adam I. P. Smith offers a new interpretation of the familiar story of the path to war… Continue Reading Adam I. P. Smith: The Conservatism of Revolution

Michael D. Robinson: Reconsidering John Jordan Crittenden

Today, we welcome a guest post from Michael D. Robinson, author of A Union Indivisible:  Secession and the Politics of Slavery in the Border South. Many accounts of the secession crisis overlook the sharp political conflict that took place in the Border South states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. In A Union Indivisible, Michael D. Robinson expands the scope… Continue Reading Michael D. Robinson: Reconsidering John Jordan Crittenden

Stephanie Hinnershitz: Righting Past Wrongs in Lingering Legal Codes

Today we welcome a guest post from Stephanie Hinnershitz, author of A Different Shade of Justice:  Asian American Civil Rights in the South. From the formation of Chinese and Japanese communities in the early twentieth century through Indian hotel owners’ battles against business discrimination in the 1980s and ’90s, Stephanie Hinnershitz shows how Asian Americans organized carefully constructed legal battles… Continue Reading Stephanie Hinnershitz: Righting Past Wrongs in Lingering Legal Codes

Alice Elizabeth Malavasic: The Momentous Issue of Our National Soul

Today we welcome a guest blog post from Alice Elizabeth Malavasic, author of The F Street Mess:  How Southern Senators Rewrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Pushing back against the idea that the Slave Power conspiracy was merely an ideological construction, The F Street Mess argues that some southern politicians in the 1850s did indeed hold an inordinate amount of power in… Continue Reading Alice Elizabeth Malavasic: The Momentous Issue of Our National Soul

Michael D. Robinson: Where Was the Political Middle Ground during the Secession Crisis?

Today, we welcome a guest post from Michael D. Robinson, author of A Union Indivisible:  Secession and the Politics of Slavery in the Border South. Many accounts of the secession crisis overlook the sharp political conflict that took place in the Border South states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. In A Union Indivisible, Michael D. Robinson expands the scope… Continue Reading Michael D. Robinson: Where Was the Political Middle Ground during the Secession Crisis?

Alice Elizabeth Malavasic: What’s in a Name?

Today we welcome a guest blog post from Alice Elizabeth Malavasic, author of The F Street Mess:  How Southern Senators Rewrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Pushing back against the idea that the Slave Power conspiracy was merely an ideological construction, The F Street Mess argues that some southern politicians in the 1850s did indeed hold an inordinate amount of power in… Continue Reading Alice Elizabeth Malavasic: What’s in a Name?

M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska : New Museums and New (Kinds of) Histories

Today, we welcome a guest post from M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska, author of History Comes Alive:  Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s, on our changing ideas about museums. During the 1976 Bicentennial celebration, millions of Americans engaged with the past in brand-new ways. They became absorbed by historical miniseries like Roots, visited museums with new exhibits that immersed them in… Continue Reading M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska : New Museums and New (Kinds of) Histories

Megan Raby: Ecology and U.S. Empire in the Caribbean

Today we welcome a guest blog post from Megan Raby, author of American Tropics:  The Caribbean Roots of Biodiversity Science. Biodiversity has been a key concept in international conservation since the 1980s, yet historians have paid little attention to its origins. Uncovering its roots in tropical fieldwork and the southward expansion of U.S. empire at the turn of the twentieth… Continue Reading Megan Raby: Ecology and U.S. Empire in the Caribbean

Mary Elizabeth Basile Chopas: The Lessons of World War II Selective Internment

Today, we welcome a guest post from Mary Elizabeth Basile Chopas, author of Searching for Subversives:  The Story of Italian Internment in Wartime America. When the United States entered World War II, Italian nationals living in this country were declared enemy aliens and faced with legal restrictions. Several thousand aliens and a few U.S. citizens were arrested and underwent flawed… Continue Reading Mary Elizabeth Basile Chopas: The Lessons of World War II Selective Internment

Joan Marie Johnson: November 6, 1917 — Women Win the Right to Vote in New York State

Today we welcome a guest post from Joan Marie Johnson, author of Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women’s Movement, 1870–1967, on how women won the right to vote in New York State. In Funding Feminism, Joan Marie Johnson examines an understudied dimension of women’s history in the United States: how a group of affluent white women from the… Continue Reading Joan Marie Johnson: November 6, 1917 — Women Win the Right to Vote in New York State

Happening this week: An online roundtable on Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution by Devyn Spence Benson

Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), is hosting an online roundtable on Devyn Spence Benson’s Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution, published in 2016 by UNC Press. The roundtable begins on Monday, November 6, 2017, and concludes on Saturday, November 11, 2017. The roundtable will feature responses from Yesenia Barragan (Dartmouth College) Aisha K. Finch (UCLA; author… Continue Reading Happening this week: An online roundtable on Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution by Devyn Spence Benson

Eve E. Buckley: The Power and Paucity of Primary Documents for Latin American Historians

Today we welcome a guest blog post from Eve E. Buckley, author of Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil, on drought and regional development in Brazil. Eve E. Buckley’s study of twentieth-century Brazil examines the nation’s hard social realities through the history of science, focusing on the use of technology and engineering as vexed instruments of… Continue Reading Eve E. Buckley: The Power and Paucity of Primary Documents for Latin American Historians

M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska: Consuming History

Today, we welcome a guest post from M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska, author of History Comes Alive:  Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s, on throwback jerseys and limited edition cereal boxes. During the 1976 Bicentennial celebration, millions of Americans engaged with the past in brand-new ways. They became absorbed by historical miniseries like Roots, visited museums with new exhibits that immersed… Continue Reading M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska: Consuming History