“History for All the People,” a blog of the State Archives of North Carolina, recently announced that the state’s General Assembly session records are now online. Here is a taste of the post: After three years, The General Assembly Session...
early American history
Muslims Were in America Before Protestants
Yes, as Sam Haselby reminds us, this is true. Here is a taste of his piece at Aeon: “Muslims of Early America“: The writing of American history has also been dominated by Puritan institutions. It might no longer be quite...
Attend a Lecture at the David Library of the American Revolution This Fall
What a great lineup! Press release: UPPER MAKEFIELD — The David Library of the American Revolution announced a schedule of educational programs that will be offered free in the library’s lecture hall, 1201 River Road, Washington Crossing. The David Library...
The Author’s Corner with Jacob Lee
Jacob Lee is Assistant Professor of History at Penn State University. This interview is based on his new book, Masters of the Middle Waters: Indian Nations and Colonial Ambitions along the Mississippi (Belknap Press, 2019). JF: What led you to write Masters...
The Latest from the Randall Stephens Collection: Historian Baseball Card Series
Check out the entire collection here. ...
SNUBBED!
We have had fun over the years with the Junto early American history March Madness tournament. In 2017, I chided the selection committee for undermining democracy. Back in 2016, I was mad at the selection committee for putting my Journal of...
The 2019 Junto March Madness is Here!
This year the Junto blog is staging a March Madness-style competition to decide the best digital project in early American history. A taste: It’s once again March and that can only mean one thing at The Junto: our March Madness tournament. We...
The Author’s Corner with Paul Musselwhite
Paul Musselwhite is Assistant Professor of History and the Vice-Chair of the History Department at Dartmouth College. This interview is based on his new book Urban Dreams, Rural Commonwealth: The Rise of Plantation Society in the Chesapeake (University of Chicago Press, 2018)....
Some Misunderstandings About “Evangelical Historians” and the Study of History
Some of you may recall back in July 2017 when we featured University of Alabama religion professor’s Mike Altman‘s book Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu at The Author’s Corner. It is an excellent book from an excellent scholar of American religion. Today on...
Was Phillis Wheatley an “Evangelical?”
(This is the third and final post in a series on the word “evangelical” in the eighteenth-century and today. Read the first post here and the second post here). So we’re agreed that the first question to every academic panel...
Should Evangelicals Be Defined By Their Spiritual Commitments or Something Else?
(This is the second post in a series on the word “evangelical” in the eighteenth-century and today). In my first post in this three-post series, I made the case that there was a religious movement in the eighteenth-century that can...
Yes, There Was an “Evangelical” Movement in the Eighteenth Century and it Should Be Defined Theologically
(This is the first post in a series on the word “evangelical” in the eighteenth-century and today). If the Jonathan Merritt dust-up had a positive result, it was that it got historians thinking again about the meaning of the word...
The Author’s Corner with Scott Heerman
Scott Heerman is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Miami. This interview is based on his new book, The Alchemy of Slavery: Human Bondage and Emancipation in the Illinois Country, 1730-1865 ( University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018). JF: What led...
Father Junipero Serra is OUT at Stanford
Here is the Stanford press release: Stanford will rename some campus features named for Father Junipero Serra, the 18th-century founder of the California mission system, but will retain the Serra name and the names of other Spanish missionaries and settlers...
Constitution Day Reading
Today is Constitution Day. Here are some history books (and one primary source) on the Constitution that I have found helpful: The Federalist Papers Richard Beeman, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution Jack Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas...
Ronald Hoffman, R.I.P.
I did not know Ron Hoffman well. He was the Director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture at William & Mary when I was coming of age as an early American historian. I first met Ron...
Let’s Remember What Thomas Jefferson Thought About Religious Liberty for Muslims
Check out Elahe Izadi‘s piece at The Washington Post. It quotes several scholars of early American history, Islam, Thomas Jefferson, and religious liberty including Denise Spellberg, Andrew O’Shaughnessy, and John Ragosta. Here is a taste: Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute for Religious...
The Author’s Corner With L.H. Roper
L.H. Roper is Professor of History at the State University of New York at New Paltz. This interview is based on his recently edited book The Torrid Zone: Caribbean Colonization and Cultural Interaction in the Long Seventeenth Century Caribbean (University of...
Gordon Wood Reviews Stephen Brumwell’s *Turncoat*
Yesterday we posted an Author’s Corner interview with Stephen Brumwell, author of Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty. Over at The Weekly Standard, Gordon Wood reviews the book. Here is a taste: It was once common knowledge, the story...
An Interview with the Editors of the *Journal of the Early Republic*
Over at The Panorama, Will Mackintosh interviews Andy Shankman and David Waldstreicher, the new editors of the Journal of the Early Republic. Here is a taste: Will: What are some of your plans for your editorial tenure at the Journal of the Early Republic?...