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family history

Ideas in Progress interview: Agnes Howard on family history and the experiences of everyday life

Agnes Howard and Nadya Williams   |  January 2, 2025

Few topics seem as appropriate for discussing at the very beginning of a new year as family–the people who shape us and the people whom we shape in turn. And so, in this first Ideas in Progress interview of 2025, […]

The Author’s Corner with Michael O’Malley

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 23, 2024

Michael O’Malley is Professor of History at George Mason University. This interview is based on his new book, The Color of Family: History, Race, and the Politics of Ancestry (University of Chicago Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write […]

The Author’s Corner with Rachel Louise Moran

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 10, 2024

Rachel Louise Moran is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas. This interview is based on her new book, Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America (University of Chicago Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]

The Author’s Corner with Lori D. Ginzberg

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 2, 2024

Lori D. Ginzberg is Professor Emerita of History and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. This interview is based on her new book, Tangled Journeys: One Family’s Story and the Making of American History (University of […]

The Author’s Corner with Elizabeth Garner Masarik

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 27, 2024

Elizabeth Garner Masarik is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York, Brockport. This interview is based on her new book, The Sentimental State: How Women-Led Reform Built the American Welfare State (University of Georgia Press, 2024). […]

The Author’s Corner with Rebecca Wellington

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 12, 2024

Rebecca Wellington is a Clinical Instructor and Director of Field Placements in the School of Education at the University of Puget Sound. This interview is based on her new book, Who Is a Worthy Mother?: An Intimate History of Adoption […]

My father didn’t need James Dobson to teach him how to be a patriarch. Focus on the Family had a different influence on him.

John Fea   |  March 13, 2023

I’ve made this point before, but I recently made it again on a WNYC (New York City’s National Public Radio station) podcast called “On the Divided Dial.” (It was repackaged and rereleased last week). I appreciate journalist Katie Thornton willingness […]

The Author’s Corner with Victoria E. Ott

Rachel Petroziello   |  January 20, 2023

Victoria E. Ott is James A. Wood Professor of American History and the coordinator of Gender and Women’s Studies at Birmingham-Southern College. This interview is based on her new book, The Failure of Our Fathers: Family, Gender, and Power in […]

What a Charles Willson Peale painting can teach us about vaccinating our children

John Fea   |  December 4, 2021

Central Michigan University historian Andrew Wehrman has been an indispensable guide in this age of COVID-19. Here is a taste of his recent piece at Age of Revolutions blog: For portrait painters like Charles Willson Peale, ignoring smallpox was part […]