Title search results
Showing 22101 - 22120 of 36758 items
Kansas And The West: New Perspectives
By Rita Napier. 2003
Kansas is steeped in the lore and legends of the Old West-from Dodge City to the Dust Bowl days. But,…
as these authors show, that leaves out a lot of state history. Drawing on scholarship that has transformed our understanding of the history of both state and region, Kansas and the West introduces readers to a wide range of people, places, and themes that demonstrate the complex relationships among race, class, gender, and environment. In so doing, it also puts to rest many of the myths that have dominated western history for so long, reflecting both the positive and the negative consequences of human actions over 150 years of Kansas history. The collection gathers eighteen key writings that take readers through three eras. The dispossession and resettlement of Native Americans is seen in such pieces as Elliot West's "Story of Three Families" and Richard White's "Cultural Landscape of the Pawnees." The nineteenth-century evolution from "Bleeding Kansas" to a modern state is seen in works ranging from writings on the Civil War era by Bill Cecil-Fronsman and Richard Sheridan to observations on road improvements by Paul Sutter. And selected aspects of Kansas in the twentieth century are seen in such contributions as Donald Worster's controversial views on the Dust Bowl, Mary Dudziak's article on desegregation in 1950s Topeka, and a look at labor in the beefpacking industry by Donald Stull and Michael Broadway. By incorporating voices from history that have too long been lost in the din of tradition—especially the voices of Native Americans and blacks, women and laborers—Kansas and the West provides a provocative and much-needed new view of the state's past. A book that will prove fascinating for general readers, instructive for students, and an invaluable touchstone for scholars, it brings us different stories, new actors, and fresh images that challenge some of our most cherished views of the West—and in the process shows us that complexity and diversity have always characterized what we have habitually thought of as "simpler times."It was 1862, the second year of the Civil War, though Kansans and Missourians had been fighting over slavery for…
almost a decade. For the 250 Union soldiers facing down rebel irregulars on Enoch Toothman’s farm near Butler, Missouri, this was no battle over abstract principles. These were men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry, and they were fighting for their own freedom and that of their families. They belonged to the first black regiment raised in a northern state, and the first black unit to see combat during the Civil War. Soldiers in the Army of Freedom is the first published account of this largely forgotten regiment and, in particular, its contribution to Union victory in the trans-Mississippi theater of the Civil War. As such, it restores the First Kansas Colored Infantry to its rightful place in American history. Composed primarily of former slaves, the First Kansas Colored saw major combat in Missouri, Indian Territory, and Arkansas. Ian Michael Spurgeon draws upon a wealth of little-known sources—including soldiers’ pension applications—to chart the intersection of race and military service, and to reveal the regiment’s role in countering white prejudices by defying stereotypes. Despite naysayers’ bigoted predictions—and a merciless slaughter at the Battle of Poison Spring—these black soldiers proved themselves as capable as their white counterparts, and so helped shape the evolving attitudes of leading politicians, such as Kansas senator James Henry Lane and President Abraham Lincoln. A long-overdue reconstruction of the regiment’s remarkable combat record, Spurgeon’s book brings to life the men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry in their doubly desperate battle against the Confederate forces and skepticism within Union ranks.Bette Davis Black and White
By Julia A. Stern. 2021
Bette Davis’s career becomes a vehicle for a deep examination of American race relations. Bette Davis was not only one…
of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but also one of its most outspoken advocates on matters of race. In Bette Davis Black and White, Julia A. Stern explores this largely untold facet of Davis’s brilliant career. Bette Davis Black and White analyzes four of Davis’s best-known pictures—Jezebel (1938), The Little Foxes (1941), In This Our Life (1942), and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)—against the history of American race relations. Stern also weaves in memories of her own experiences as a young viewer, coming into racial consciousness watching Davis’s films on television in an all-white suburb of Chicago. Davis’s egalitarian politics and unique collaborations with her Black costars offer Stern a window into midcentury American racial fantasy and the efforts of Black performers to disrupt it. This book incorporates testimony from Davis’s Black contemporaries, including James Baldwin and C. L. R. James, as well as the African American fans who penned letters to Warner Brothers praising Davis’s work. A unique combination of history, star study, and memoir, Bette Davis Black and White allows us to contemplate cross-racial spectatorship in new ways.Bette Davis Black and White
By Julia A. Stern. 2021
Bette Davis’s career becomes a vehicle for a deep examination of American race relations. Bette Davis was not only one…
of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but also one of its most outspoken advocates on matters of race. In Bette Davis Black and White, Julia A. Stern explores this largely untold facet of Davis’s brilliant career. Bette Davis Black and White analyzes four of Davis’s best-known pictures—Jezebel (1938), The Little Foxes (1941), In This Our Life (1942), and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)—against the history of American race relations. Stern also weaves in memories of her own experiences as a young viewer, coming into racial consciousness watching Davis’s films on television in an all-white suburb of Chicago. Davis’s egalitarian politics and unique collaborations with her Black costars offer Stern a window into midcentury American racial fantasy and the efforts of Black performers to disrupt it. This book incorporates testimony from Davis’s Black contemporaries, including James Baldwin and C. L. R. James, as well as the African American fans who penned letters to Warner Brothers praising Davis’s work. A unique combination of history, star study, and memoir, Bette Davis Black and White allows us to contemplate cross-racial spectatorship in new ways.Bette Davis Black and White
By Julia A. Stern. 2021
Bette Davis’s career becomes a vehicle for a deep examination of American race relations. Bette Davis was not only one…
of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but also one of its most outspoken advocates on matters of race. In Bette Davis Black and White, Julia A. Stern explores this largely untold facet of Davis’s brilliant career. Bette Davis Black and White analyzes four of Davis’s best-known pictures—Jezebel (1938), The Little Foxes (1941), In This Our Life (1942), and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)—against the history of American race relations. Stern also weaves in memories of her own experiences as a young viewer, coming into racial consciousness watching Davis’s films on television in an all-white suburb of Chicago. Davis’s egalitarian politics and unique collaborations with her Black costars offer Stern a window into midcentury American racial fantasy and the efforts of Black performers to disrupt it. This book incorporates testimony from Davis’s Black contemporaries, including James Baldwin and C. L. R. James, as well as the African American fans who penned letters to Warner Brothers praising Davis’s work. A unique combination of history, star study, and memoir, Bette Davis Black and White allows us to contemplate cross-racial spectatorship in new ways.African Americans In The Revolutionary War
By Lt. Col. Lanning. 2000
&“A thorough, long-overdue study of Black Americans&’ contributions during the War of Independence. . . . An important piece of…
American and African American history.&”—Kirkus Reviews In this enlightening and informative work, military historian Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning (ret.) reveals the little-known, critical, and heroic role African Americans played in the American Revolution, serving in integrated units—a situation that would not exist again until the Korean War—more than 150 years later . . . At first, neither George Washington nor the Continental Congress approved of enlisting African Americans in the new army. Nevertheless, Black men—both slave and free—filled the ranks and served in all of the early battles. Black sailors also saw action in every major naval battle of the Revolution, including members of John Paul Jones&’s crew aboard the Bonhomme Richard. At least thirteen Black Americans served in the newly formed U.S. Marine Corps during the war. Bravery among African Americans was commonplace, as recognized by their commanders and state governments, and their bravery is recorded here in the stories of citizen Crispus Attucks at the Boston Massacre; militiaman Price Esterbrook at Lexington Green; soldier Salem Poor at Bunker Hill; and marine John Martin aboard the brig Reprisal. As interest in colonial history enjoys renewed popularity due to works like Hamilton, and the issues of prejudice and discrimination remain at the forefront of our times, African Americans in the Revolutionary War offers an invaluable perspective on a crucial topic that touches the lives of Americans of every color and background.At the door of memory: a witness to history and the assassination of President Kennedy
By Rike Aubrey, Colin McSween. 2008
While in Trauma Room 1, Dallas, Texas, Aubrey Rike found himself at the center of an unparalleled time in history,…
and in doing so, assumed the unscripted yet essential role of providing selfless and heartfelt assistance to Jacqueline Kennedy. The emotional incident Aubrey shares is at times heartbreaking, and brings unashamed tears to his eyes as he relates those private moments with Mrs. Kennedy. Now a poignant memory, Aubrey' s experience also reveals some less than admirable dynamics demonstrated as the result of the death of an extraordinary leader.Home Life in Colonial Days
By Alice Morse Earle. 1974
Originally published in 1898, this is a classic work on life in colonial America. Earle, a noted social historian of…
her day, conducted extensive research into the folkways of the colonists, with special emphasis on colonial New England. She writes with warmth, enthusiasm, and understated humor, drawing frequently on letters and diaries of the time. Chapters cover weaving and spinning (described in detail), transportation, housing, hunting and fishing, social customs, flower gardens, and much more.The life of a major figure in twentieth‑century economic history whose impact has long been clouded by dubious allegations &“Harry…
Dexter White has always been the mystery man at the center of America&’s international economic policy in the 1930s and 1940s. James Boughton helps demystify him in this rich, enlightening, and most interesting volume.&”—Douglas Irwin, author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy Although Harry Dexter White (1892–1948) was arguably the most important U.S. government economist of the twentieth century, he is remembered more for having been accused of being a Soviet agent. During the Second World War, he became chief advisor on international financial policy to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, a role that would take him to Bretton Woods, where he would make a lasting impact on the architecture of postwar international finance. However, charges of espionage, followed by his dramatic testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and death from a heart attack a few days later, obscured his importance in setting the terms for the modern global economy. In this book, James Boughton rehabilitates White, delving into his life and work and returning him to a central role as the architect of the world&’s financial system.Following the Drum: Women at the Valley Forge Encampment
By Nancy K. Loane. 2009
Friday, December 19, 1777, dawned cold and windy. Fourteen thousand Continental Army soldiers tramped from dawn to dusk along the…
rutted Pennsylvania roads from Gulph Mills to Valley Forge, the site of their winter encampment. The soldiers&’ arrival was followed by the army&’s wagons and hundreds of camp women. Following the Drum tells the story of the forgotten women who spent the winter of 1777–78 with the Continental Army at Valley Forge—from those on society&’s lowest rungs to ladies on the upper echelons. Impoverished and clinging to the edge of survival, many camp women were soldiers&’ wives who worked as the army&’s washers, nurses, cooks, and seamstresses. Other women at the encampment were of higher status: they traveled with George Washington&’s entourage when the army headquarters shifted locations and served the general as valued cooks, laundresses, or housekeepers. There were also the ladies at Valley Forge who were not subject to the harsh conditions of camp life and came and went as they and their husbands, Washington&’s generals and military advisers, saw fit. Nancy K. Loane uses sources such as issued military orders, pension depositions after the war, soldiers&’ descriptions, and some of the women&’s own diary entries and letters to bring these women to life.Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: Power, Profits, and Productivity in Modern America
By Samuel Evan Milner. 2021
Concentrated market power and the weakened sway of corporate stakeholders over management have emerged as leading concerns of American political…
economy. Samuel Milner provides a historical context for contemporary efforts to resolve these anxieties by examining the contest to control the distribution of corporate income during the mid‑twentieth century. During this “Golden Age of American Capitalism,” apprehension about the debilitating consequences of industrial concentration fueled efforts to ensure that management would share the fruits of progress with workers, consumers, and society as a whole. Focusing on wage and price determination in steel, automobiles, and electrical equipment, Milner reveals how the management of concentrated industries understood its ability to distribute income to its stakeholders as well as why economists, courts, and public policymakers struggled to curtail the exercise of that market power at its source.Disorder: A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine
By Peter A. Swenson. 2021
An incisive look into the problematic relationships among medicine, politics, and business in America and their effects on the nation&’s…
health &“A comprehensive, revealing and surprising account of the history of American medicine.&”—David Blumenthal, M.D., coauthor of The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office and president of the Commonwealth Fund &“This book is both an important contribution to the history of the American medical profession (and its impact on society as a whole), and a reminder of the malleable, historically contingent nature of its identity and ethos.&”—Scott H. Podolsky, M.D., author of The Antibiotic Era Meticulously tracing the dramatic conflicts both inside organized medicine and between the medical profession and the larger society over quality, equality, and economy in health care, Peter A. Swenson illuminates the history of American medical politics from the late nineteenth century to the present. This book chronicles the role of medical reformers in the progressive movement around the beginning of the twentieth century and the American Medical Association&’s dramatic turn to conservatism later. Addressing topics such as public health, medical education, pharmaceutical regulation, and health-care access, Swenson paints a disturbing picture of the entanglements of medicine, politics, and profit seeking that explain why the United States remains the only economically advanced democracy without universal health care. Swenson does, however, see a potentially brighter future as a vanguard of physicians push once again for progressive reforms and the adoption of inclusive, effective, and affordable practices.The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom
By Sahar F. Aziz. 2021
Why does a country with religious liberty enmeshed in its legal and social structures produce such overt prejudice and discrimination…
against Muslims? Sahar Aziz’s groundbreaking book demonstrates how race and religion intersect to create what she calls the Racial Muslim. Comparing discrimination against immigrant Muslims with the prejudicial treatment of Jews, Catholics, Mormons, and African American Muslims during the twentieth century, Aziz explores the gap between America’s aspiration for and fulfillment of religious freedom. With America’s demographics rapidly changing from a majority white Protestant nation to a multiracial, multireligious society, this book is an in dispensable read for understanding how our past continues to shape our present—to the detriment of our nation’s future.Pacific Colony, a Southern California institution established to care for the "feebleminded," justified the incarceration, sterilization, and forced mutilation of…
some of the most vulnerable members of society from the 1920s through the 1950s. Institutional records document the convergence of ableism and racism in Pacific Colony. Analyzing a vast archive, Natalie Lira reveals how political concerns over Mexican immigration—particularly ideas about the low intelligence, deviant sexuality, and inherent criminality of the "Mexican race"—shaped decisions regarding the treatment and reproductive future of Mexican-origin patients. Laboratory of Deficiency documents the ways Mexican-origin people sought out creative resistance to institutional control and offers insight into how race, disability, and social deviance have been called upon to justify the confinement and reproductive constraint of certain individuals in the name of public health and progress.Americans and the Holocaust: A Reader
By Edward Phillips. 2021
What did the American people and the US government know about the threats posed by Nazi Germany? What could have been…
done to stop the rise of Nazism in Germany and its assault on Europe’s Jews? Americans and the Holocaust explores these enduring questions by gathering together more than one hundred primary sources that reveal how Americans debated their responsibility to respond to Nazism. Drawing on groundbreaking research conducted for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Americans and the Holocaust exhibition, these carefully chosen sources help readers understand how Americans’ responses to Nazism were shaped by the challenging circumstances in the United States during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, including profound economic crisis, fear of communism, pervasive antisemitism and racism, and widespread isolationism. Collecting newspaper and magazine articles, popular culture materials, and government records, Americans and the Holocaust is a valuable resource for students and historians seeking to shed light on this dark era in world history. To explore further, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's digital exhibit, available here: https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.The Overseas Trade of British America: A Narrative History
By Thomas M. Truxes. 2021
A sweeping history of early American trade and the foundation of the American economy"We could have no better guide than…
Truxes explaining incisively how American colonial merchants enriched their communities through licit and illicit trade, and how this enrichment was the product of slavery and the slave trade."—Nicholas Canny, author of Imagining Ireland's Pasts In a single, readily digestible, coherent narrative, historian Thomas M. Truxes presents the three hundred–year history of the overseas trade of British America. Born from seeds planted in Tudor England in the sixteenth century, Atlantic trade allowed the initial survival, economic expansion, and later prosperity of British America, and brought vastly different geographical regions, each with a distinctive identity and economic structure, into a single fabric. Truxes shows how colonial American prosperity was only possible because of the labor of enslaved Africans, how the colonial economy became dependent on free and open markets, and how the young United States owed its survival in the struggle of the American Revolution to Atlantic trade."Our Hemisphere"?: The United States in Latin America, from 1776 to the Twenty-First Century
By Russell C. Crandall, Britta H. Crandall. 2021
An accessible exploration of U.S.–Latin American relations. from the colonial period to the present day &“&‘Our Hemisphere&’? is a balanced…
and nuanced portrayal of the history of U.S.–Latin American relations. The attention given to more recent episodes on immigration, the drug war and U.S. policy toward Cuba and Venezuela, is especially welcome.&”—Allen Wells, author of Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR and the Jews of Sosúa &“Our Hemisphere&”? uncovers the range, depth, and veracity of the United States&’ relationship with the Americas. Using short historical vignettes, Britta and Russell Crandall chart the course of inter‑American relations from 1776 to the present, highlighting the roles that individuals and groups of soldiers, intellectuals, private citizens, and politicians have had in shaping U.S. policy toward Latin America in the postcolonial, Cold War, and post–Cold War eras. The United States is usually and correctly seen as pursuing a monolithic, hegemonic agenda in Latin America, wielding political, economic, and military muscle to force Latin American countries to do its bidding, but the Crandalls reveal unexpected yet salient regional interactions where Latin Americans have exercised their own power with their northern and very powerful neighbor. Moreover, they show that Washington&’s relationship with the region has relied, in addition to the usual heavy‑handedness, on cooperation and mutual respect since the beginning of the relationship.Uncertain Allies: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Threat of a United Europe
By Klaus Larres. 2021
A clear and comprehensive examination of transatlantic relations during the Nixon/Kissinger era &“The early 1970s represented a pivotal moment in…
U.S. ties with Europe. Klaus Larres tells this story in a fascinating and highly readable manner. Essential reading.&”—Daniel S. Hamilton, Johns Hopkins University/Woodrow Wilson Center The United States has long been conflicted between promoting a united Western Europe in order to strengthen its defense of the West, and fearing that a more united Western Europe might not submit to American political and economic leadership. The era of wholehearted support for European unity was limited to the immediate postwar era. The stances of the past three U.S. presidents—Bush&’s unilateralism, Obama&’s insistence on &“leading from behind,&” and Trump&’s overt hostility toward the European Union—were prefigured by Washington&’s economic and geopolitical strategies of the 1960s and 1970s. Concentrating on the policies of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, Klaus Larres argues that their years in office were the major turning point when &“benign hegemony&” gave way to an attitude toward Europe that was seldom better than lukewarm, frequently even outright hostile, and that was returned in kind. This book offers an unusually clear and comprehensive examination of transatlantic relations during the Nixon era.A Revolution Down On the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture Since 1929
By Paul K. Conkin. 2009
At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing,…
no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.César E. Chávez came to Oxnard, California, in 1958, twenty years after he lived briefly in the city as a…
child with his migrant farmworker family during the Great Depression. This time Chávez returned as the organizer of the Community Service Organization to support the unionization campaign of the United Packinghouse Workers of America. Together the two groups challenged the agricultural industry’s use of braceros (imported contract laborers) who displaced resident farmworkers.The Mexican and Mexican American populations in Oxnard were involved in cultural struggles and negotiations long before Chávez led them in marches and active protests. Curious Unions explores the ways in which the Mexican community forged intriguing partnerships with other ethnic groups within Oxnard in the first half of the twentieth century and the resulting economic exchanges, cultural practices, and labor and community activism. Frank P. Barajas examines how the Oxnard ethnic Mexican population exercised its agency in alliance with other groups and organizations to meet their needs before large-scale protests and labor unions were engaged. Curious Unions charts how the cultural negotiations that took place in the Oxnard ethnic Mexican community helped shape and empower farm labor organizing.