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Process: a blog for american history - History
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What’s in the December Issue of the Journal of American History?
The December issue of the Journal of American History is now available online and in print. Included are articles by Trent MacNamara, Tracey Deutsch, Natasha Zaretsky and Aaron Hall's Editor's Choice article, "Bad Roads: Building and Using a Carceral Landscape in the Plantation South." The articles
Call for Papers: Sensory History
Process invites proposals and submissions for an upcoming series on sensory history. We are open to a variety of themes relating to sensory history as both a methodology and a field and its intersections with various subfields of U.S. history, including histories of law, age, gender, disability stud
On “The Environmental Protection Agency, Sewer Infrastructure, and the Racialized Geography of the United States”
Nothing motivates me to write as much as anger. My June 2024 Journal of American History article, “‘Bring Money’: The Environmental Protection Agency, Sewer Infrastructure, and the Racialized Geography of the United States,” is a case in point. For quite some time, I have been troubled by the mythol
Call for Papers: Histories of Aging and Elderly Lives
Process invites proposals and submissions for an upcoming series on the elderly in U.S. history. While there is a vast array of histories relating to youth culture, children, and young adults in the United States, there are fewer comparable studies on the history of elderly culture and their impact
Reflections on the Geopolitical Roots of U.S. Student Loan Debt
The emergence of student loan debt in the late 1960s can be situated within a broader shift towards neoliberal governance, which relies on market incorporation as a means of providing access to basic social provisions, like housing, health care, and education. One way I have begun to examine the eme
Major League Baseball’s Historical Quest to Entice Middle- and Upper-Class Fans to the Park
This piece is a response to our call for submissions, Histories of Sport. For our submission guidelines, click here. In June, I attended Major League Baseball’s (MLB) London Series—one of MLB’s many attempts to expand its fanbase. Baseball (or at least its modern, American version) has never been
Denial, Distraction, Doubt, and Deceit on the Road to Scientific Disinformation
To this day, many in the United States recall the 1950s as the height of the era of “better living through chemistry.”[1] But it was also the moment when much of the public started to worry, in earnest, about whether the growing number of synthetic chemicals in food, water, air, and the earth were d
Remembering America’s Child Labor Crisis and the Women Reformers Who Opposed It
In the last couple of years, Americans have rediscovered child labor. The Nation reported that “Child Labor is Back—And It’s as Chilling as Ever” and the New York Times declared a “New Child Labor Crisis in America.”[1] But, as I argue in my recent JAH article, the United States never completely abo
What’s in the September Issue of the Journal of American History?
The September issue of the Journal of American History is now available online and in print. Included are articles by Myisha S. Eatmon, Simon Balto, Maggie Elmore, and Michaela Kleber's Editor's Choice article, "'No cause for distrust': Gender Plurality in Illinois-French First Contacts." The pieces
Fifty Years of Combahee River Collective
This piece is a response to our call for submissions, Celebrating Combahee at Fifty: Black Feminism, Socialism, Race, and Sexuality. For our submission guidelines, click here. The use of the wave metaphor for describing feminism has been criticized for suggesting unified progression across the Wo
Black Activism & the Jazz Age
This piece is a response to our Call for Submissions: Histories of Political Protest in the U.S. For our submission guidelines, click here. While the literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance are correctly celebrated as intellectuals and activists, jazz musicians of the time were not extended si
Resisting the Lonely Historian
I long imagined writing as a lonely endeavor. My vision was of an individual bent over a notebook, solitary in some winged armchair, in a room quiet save for the gasps of a dying fire. As an undergraduate, I found friends who shared my habits of pouring over fantasy novels and writing poems on class
The Peculiar World of American Sheriffs
I didn’t set out to write about sheriffs. I was working on a history of a 1933 murder that began with the beating, robbery, and death of a white shopkeeper in the tiny town of Pompano in Broward County, Florida, and ended with the 1940 United States Supreme Court decision known as Chambers v. Florid
What’s in the June Issue of the Journal of American History?
The June issue of the Journal of American History is now available online and in print. Included are articles by Jessica Choppin Roney, Jennifer Thomson, Calvin Cheung-Miaw, and Benjamin Madley's Editor's Choice article, "'Aloha with tears': Native Hawaiians in the California Gold Rush, 1848–1860."
Fighting Fascism, Writing Novels, and Preserving Radical History
This piece is a response to our call for submissions on U.S. Intervention in Latin America and on Histories of Political Protest in the U.S. For our submission guidelines, click here. In late 1980, mere weeks after Ronald Reagan’s election as President, a dockworker discovered a huge cache of U.S
Masters of the Air: American Bomber Boys Fight the Good War
Masters of the Air. Dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga, Dee Rees, Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Tim Van Patten. Prod. Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg. Amblin Television and Apple Studios, 2024. Streaming. Telling the story of the World War II-era United States Eighth Air Force—the focus of the new Ap
Historians and the Strange, Fluid World of Nineteenth-Century Politics
In the December 2023 issue of the Journal of American History, Rachel A. Shelden and Erik B. Alexander argue that our understanding of nineteenth-century politics has been hindered by a framework known as the party system model, which offers a view of parties as top-down institutions focused on capt
Protesting the 1980 Moscow “Olympics of Oppression”
This piece is a response to our Call for Submissions: Histories of Political Protest in the U.S. For our submission guidelines, click here. In 1974, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Moscow’s bid to host the 1980 Summer Olympics, it set off a wave of protests among activists
Call for Papers: Histories of Sport
In anticipation of the upcoming 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Process invites proposals and submissions for an upcoming series on the histories of sport in the United States. We are open to a wide range of topics and approaches. This could include pieces about sports activism and politics; the athleti
Friday Highlights at OAH 2024
Day two of the 2024 Annual Meeting for the Organization of American Historians brought sunny weather and another slate of great panels, presentations, and events. Participants ventured out into the beautiful French Quarter to explore local history and take advantage of the tours and offsite sessions
Thursday Highlights at OAH 2024
The 2024 Annual Meeting for the Organization of American Historians opened Thursday. Attendees braved storms and flood warnings to arrive at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans, located in the historic French Quarter on Canal Street. We are lucky enough to be here during the French Quarter Festival, g
The Hidden U.S. Experiments in Guatemala
This piece is part of Process‘s series on U.S. intervention in Latin America. If you are interested in submitting a piece on the United States in Latin America, see our CFP here and our submission guidelines here. Content Warning: This article discusses medical experimentation and physical and sexu
What’s in the March Issue of the Journal of American History?
The March issue of the Journal of American History is now available online and in print. Included are articles by Cindy Hahamovitch, Britain Hopkins, Karin Zipf, and Joshua A. McGonagle Althoff's Editor's Choice article, "Managing Settlers, Managing Neighbors: Renarrating Johnson v. McIntosh through
“An unrelinquished claim and vested interest…”: A Conversation with John David Waiheʻe III, Former Governor of Hawai‘i, on the U.S. Apology to the Hawaiian People
In light of the recent 30th anniversary of the U.S. Apology to the Hawaiian people, I sat down with former Hawai‘i Governor John Waiheʻe III to discuss its enduring legal implications. In 1993, the U.S. Congress issued the Apology as a joint-resolution, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, “to
A Decisive Influence: The American Public’s Role in Financial Regulation
In the twenty-first century, Americans have generally left questions of financial policy to such experts as government regulators, academics, and bankers. However, into the 1940s, ordinary citizens showed keen interest in banking policy.[1] Their vigilance followed a period of “wildcat” banking in t
2024 JAH Women’s History Index
In honor of Women’s History Month, we are pleased to reissue the JAH Women’s History Index. First published in 2020, the index includes every article of women’s history printed in this journal since its inception as the Mississippi Valley Historical Review more than one hundred years ago. Consistin
Celebrating Combahee at Fifty: Black Feminism, Socialism, Race, and Sexuality
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Combahee River Collective, Process calls for proposals and submissions on a wide variety of themes surrounding feminism, socialism, race, and sexuality. The Combahee River Collective was a Black lesbian feminist socialist organization formed in
Imperial Feasting: Representations of Food and Consumption in the Political Cartoons of the Spanish-American War of 1898
This piece is part of Process's series on U.S. intervention in Latin America. If you are interested in submitting a piece on the United States in Latin America, see our CFP here and our submission guidelines here. Political cartoons constituted a popular form of visual currency during the Spanish
2024 JAH African American History Index
In honor of Black History Month, we at the Journal of American History are pleased to re-release the JAH African American History Index. First published in 2019, the index includes every article of African American history we have ever printed, from our inception as the Mississippi Valley Historical
On “The U.S. Culture Wars Abroad: Liberal-Evangelical Rivalry and Decolonization in Southern Africa, 1968–1994”
The problem of the archive is a well-worn topic for historians. But sometimes the sheer contingency of the historical record—what we can and cannot learn about the past through documentation—is so glaring that it demands comment. I had this in mind as I came across records of a twenty-something Aust
What’s in the December Issue of the Journal of American History?
The December issue of the Journal of American History is now available online and in print. Included are articles by Rachel A. Shelden and Erik B. Alexander, Vanessa May, Ronnie A. Grinberg, and Daniel Immerwahr's Editor's Choice article, "Burning Down the House: Slavery and Arson in America." The p
(Trans)American History across Borders
I am often asked why a historian from France would study the history of California. Indeed, France and California seem very far apart, not only physically but also historically. Chance has played a part in my trajectory. Still, I would like to make the case that there are sound academic arguments th
Hesitancy against Hope: Reactions to the First Polio Vaccine
Looking back on the COVID-19 pandemic, we reflect on the importance of the vaccine and how its rapid testing and rollout reduced the incidence of infection. However, those who feared or opposed COVID-19 vaccination due to personal beliefs or perception of risk influenced discussions in the media and
Recovering Histories of Gendered State Violence
“Mexican Girls in Revolt,” The Missoulian, March 19, 1911. Loud, thundering calls for “that greaser” travelled through the hallways and doors of the Gonzalez County jail in south-central Texas during a hot summer evening in 1901. Men’s voices could be heard loud and clear as a mob of about 300 appr
On the Map
The flag of Bikini Atoll looks a lot like the American flag. It has the same red and white stripes. Five neat rows of white stars fill the dark blue box on the top left corner. The resemblance is intentional. Unlike the U.S. flag, with fifty stars that symbolize the fifty states, the Bikinian flag
Guåhan and the CHamoru People
Once in a while, the U.S. territory of Guåhan (Guam) appears in mainstream media such as The New York Times, generally when catastrophic or near-catastrophic events involve the island—most recently as Typhoon Mawar and its 140 mile-per-hour winds passed directly over the island in May 2023. How
Tips on Teaching K-12 LGBTQ+ History
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of The American Historian. With all of the headlines about Republican-dominated legislatures passing “Don’t Say Gay” curriculum censorship laws and white nationalist militia groups threatening Drag Story Hours at public libraries around th
Call for Papers: U.S. Intervention in Latin America
To reflect on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup, and the U.S. role in Latin America more broadly, Process invites proposals and submissions for an upcoming series on U.S. intervention in Latin America. We are open to a wide variety of themes relating to the histories of the United S
Call for Submissions: Histories of Political Protest in the United States
Process invites proposals and submissions for an upcoming series on protests in U.S. history. We are open to a variety of themes relating to the histories of political protest in the United States. This could include a wide-range of protest movements, from the marches and picket lines for women’s su
What’s in the September Issue of the Journal of American History?
The September issue of the Journal of American History is now available online and in print. Included are articles by Sonia Hernández, Martin Summers, Gene Zubovich, and Yevan Terrien's Editor's Choice article, "Baptiste and Marianne's Balbásha': Enslavement, Freedom, and Belonging in Early New Orle