U.S. history
Revolution, citizenship, civil rights, reform and historical change.
Changing Definitions of U.S. Citizenship, 1865–1920
An argument tracing citizenship’s constitutional expansion after the Civil War and the limits imposed by gender exclusion, court decisions, racial violence, and unequal access to rights.
Migration and the Western United States, 1820–1898
An evidence-based argument about how migration shaped western settlement, economic activity, and Indigenous communities, while considering the influence of transportation and federal power.
Standard Oil, Big Business, and Progressive-Era Reform
Industrialization and national markets enabled corporations to concentrate power. Ida Tarbell challenged Standard Oil’s business practices, and her criticism contributed to a wider reform climate that helped produce federal antitrust action, though it was one influence among several.
The American Revolution and Enslaved People’s Claims to Liberty
Lord Dunmore’s 1775 proclamation and the choices enslaved people made in response offer a specific way to support Gordon-Reed’s interpretation. The episode links Revolutionary claims about liberty to enslaved people’s circumstances while also showing the limits and risks of that connection.
New Deal Coalition and Racial Inequality, 1932–1945
A comparison of how New Deal labor protections could build workers’ support while the political coalition behind federal reform preserved racial exclusion.
Women’s Independence and Public Engagement in the Postbellum South
An analysis of a Mississippi women’s organization’s purpose, the nineteenth-century labor organizing that helped foster its ideas, and their contribution to twentieth-century suffragism.
Slavery’s Influence on U.S. Society, 1783–1840
A qualified argument that slavery shaped national political debate, relations between free and slave states, and antislavery petitioning, while distinguishing evidence from the period from later developments.
Federal Government and the U.S. Economy, 1932–1980
From the Depression-era New Deal to the political debates of the 1960s and 1970s, federal economic responsibilities expanded substantially, though they were never unlimited or uncontested. The examples show both lasting federal programs and continuing disputes over who should act, who should pay, and how much authority Washington should have.
Colonial Change and the American Revolution, 1700–1776
A qualified argument that political conflict over authority most directly turned social and economic change into a revolutionary movement. Popular protest, consumer boycotts, women’s participation, and Britain’s response illustrate how resistance widened and escalated by 1774.
The Webster–Hayne Debate and Sectional Politics, 1830–1865
Webster’s defense of national unity served the political purpose of making national action possible across state lines. From Missouri-era sectional disputes through expansion and the free-soil movement, political conflict increasingly centered on slavery’s future in the West. The later crisis over secession echoed the question of national versus state authority but unfolded on a far more consequential scale.
Economic Development and U.S. Migration Across Regions
An explanatory essay traces how changing economic opportunities shaped internal migration from 1890 to 1945, then compares the postwar South and West, while noting the distinct forces that mattered in each region.
U.S. Foreign Policy and Global Change, 1890–1930
An argument that U.S. foreign policy from 1890 to 1930 combined an expanding claim to authority in the Western Hemisphere with an ambitious but contested effort to shape international order after World War I.