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James Wilson & The US Constitution

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James Wilson: The Anxious FounderJames Wilson was a Scottish-born legal scholar, jurist, and statesman who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798.

Wilson attended two Continental Congresses, signed of the Declaration of Independence, and helped draft the U.S. Constitution. A leading legal theorist, he was one of the first four Associate Justices appointed to the Supreme Court by George Washington. In his capacity as the first professor of law at the College of Philadelphia (later to become the University of Pennsylvania), he taught the first course on the new Constitution to President Washington and his Cabinet in 1789 and 1790. [Read more…] about James Wilson & The US Constitution

Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently

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Henry David Thoreau Thinking DisobedientlyHenry David Thoreau was a leading figure in the American Transcendentalist movement and the era of US literary emergence. He achieved worldwide renown as an essayist, social thinker, naturalist, environmentalist, and sage.

Thoreau’s Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), an autobiographical narrative of his two-year sojourn in a self-built lakeside cabin, is one of the most widely studied works of American literature. [Read more…] about Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently

Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States

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Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States, 1789–1828Allison M. Stagg’s first book, Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States, 1789–1828 (Penn State University Press, 2023) details the political strategies and scandals that inspired the first generation of American caricaturists to share news and opinions with their audiences in shockingly radical ways. [Read more…] about Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States

Anna Rosenberg: A Key Aide to FDR and Truman

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The Confidante - The Untold Story of the Anna Rosenberg Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern AmericaThis week on the Historians Podcast, author Christopher C. Gorham discusses his biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman aide Anna Rosenberg, The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WW II and Shape Modern America (Citadel Press, 2023).

Anna Rosenberg was dubbed by Life magazine as “far and away the most important woman in the American government.”  From New York City, Rosenberg devised a plan that helped diversify the ranks of factory workers during the Second World War.  She also served as deputy defense secretary during the Korean War. [Read more…] about Anna Rosenberg: A Key Aide to FDR and Truman

Expelling the Poor: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy

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Expelling the PoorHistorians have long assumed that immigration to the United States was free from regulation until anti-Asian racism on the West Coast triggered the introduction of federal laws to restrict Chinese immigration in the 1880s. Studies of European immigration and government control on the East Coast have, meanwhile, focused on Ellis Island, which opened in 1892. [Read more…] about Expelling the Poor: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy

African Americans of St. Lawrence County

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African Americans of St Lawrence County by Bryan S ThompsonFrom its origins as part of New France through the Civil War and eventual industrialization of the region, St. Lawrence County has been shaped by all too often overlooked Black families and individuals. In African Americans of St. Lawrence County (Arcadia, 2023) author Bryan S. Thompson reveals the history of the African American community in this part of Northern New York. [Read more…] about African Americans of St. Lawrence County

America’s First Plague: The Deadly 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic

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America's First Plague - 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic Robert P WatsonDuring a 1793 outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia 5,000 of the city’s 50,000 residents died making it the worst epidemic in American history, with a death rate of 10%. As disease spread, the national government was slow to react but citizens soon donned protective masks and the authorities ordered quarantines. The streets emptied. Doubters questioned the science and disobeyed. [Read more…] about America’s First Plague: The Deadly 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic

Witness to the Revolution: A New Historical Novel Set in New York

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Witness to the RevolutionHundreds of men from Orange County, NY, the setting for the novel, served in the rebel militia. However, many residents remained loyal to King George III. Both sides had spy networks. Many in the county were divided within families. [Read more…] about Witness to the Revolution: A New Historical Novel Set in New York