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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in History
Legislating Morality In The Gilded Age And Progressive Era: Moral Panic And The “White Slave” Case That Changed America, Nancy C. Unger
Legislating Morality In The Gilded Age And Progressive Era: Moral Panic And The “White Slave” Case That Changed America, Nancy C. Unger
History
This article is based on the presidential address presented to the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era at the meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Los Angeles in 2023. Its focus is Maury Diggs and Drew Caminetti, two white men from Sacramento, California, charged with violating the Mann Act (known as the White Slave Trafficking Act) in 1913. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era obsession with white slavery, a phenomenon that has particular resonance in today’s climate, reveals the power of moral panics. Examining the steps, and missteps, that various legal, social, and political …
Russel Nye And The Unending Struggle To Keep Government Representative, Nancy Unger
Russel Nye And The Unending Struggle To Keep Government Representative, Nancy Unger
History
In his invitation to participate in this symposium on Russell Nye’s Midwestern Progressive Politics: A Historical Study of Its Origins and Development, 1870-1950, Jon Lauck gave us free rein. He did, however, suggest that we comment on how the book has aged and what Nye missed; how the reform era can be seen in regional terms; and whether Midwestern reform was moderate or radical. To address his first possibility: upon re-reading this classic, my overall reaction was decidedly mixed. In many ways, the book is emphatically a product of 1951. In contrast to today’s political histories, the lacunas are …
Soviet And Russian Masculinities: Rethinking Soviet Fatherhood After Stalin And Renewing Virility In The Russian Nation Under Putin, Amy E. Randall
Soviet And Russian Masculinities: Rethinking Soviet Fatherhood After Stalin And Renewing Virility In The Russian Nation Under Putin, Amy E. Randall
History
Vladimir Putin’s macho image and his deployment of a masculinized Russian nationalism have fascinated Russians and non-Russians alike, generating considerable public and scholarly analysis. This article argues that the appeal of Putin as a powerful and hypermasculine leader over the last twenty years is best understood not just in the larger geopolitical context of Russia’s national and economic decline in the 1990s but also in terms of Soviet and post-Soviet discourses of failed manhood. In particular, this work focuses on the widespread critique of men as fathers in the 1950s and 1960s and the accompanying campaign to create a new …
Belle La Follette’S Fight For Women’S Suffrage: Losing The Battle For Wisconsin, Winning The War For The Nation, Nancy C. Unger
Belle La Follette’S Fight For Women’S Suffrage: Losing The Battle For Wisconsin, Winning The War For The Nation, Nancy C. Unger
History
A century ago, on May 21, 1919, the US House of Representatives voted difinitively (304 to 89) in support of women’s suffrage. Two weeks later, Wisconsinite Belle La Follette sat in the visitors’ gallery of the US Senate chamber. She “shed a few tears” when it was announced that, by a vote of 56 to 25, the US Senate also approved the Nineteenth Amendment, sending it on to the states for ratification.1 For Belle La Follette, this thrilling victory was the culmination of a decades-long fight. Six days later, her happiness turned to elation when Wisconsin became the first …
Medicine Infected By Politics: The American Occupation Of Haiti, 1915-1934, Cooper Scherr
Medicine Infected By Politics: The American Occupation Of Haiti, 1915-1934, Cooper Scherr
Library Undergraduate Research Award
This article discusses the impact that politics and social beliefs have on the humanitarian goals of medicine, using the American occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) as a backdrop. First, the article explains how the United States intervened in Haiti in order to maintain its political hegemony in the Caribbean, develop Haiti as a new market for American investors, and civilize the supposedly "backwards" Haiti. Previously, historians have recognized the important role that medicine played during the occupation, but this article highlights how U.S. political, economic, and cultural motives distorted the practice of medicine in Haiti. For instance, from 1915-1922, the Americans …
Legacies Of Belle La Follette’S Big Tent Campaigns For Women’S Suffrage, Nancy Unger
Legacies Of Belle La Follette’S Big Tent Campaigns For Women’S Suffrage, Nancy Unger
History
In countless speeches and articles in La Follette’s Magazine, Belle Case La Follette urged that women needed the vote to secure “standards of cleanliness and healthfulness in the municipal home,” and because “home, society, and government are best when men and women keep together intellectually and spiritually.” This range of often mutually exclusive arguments created an inclusive big tent. However, arguing that women were qualified to vote by their roles as wives and mothers while maintaining that gender was superfluous to suffrage also contributed to an uneasy combination that would continue the conflict over women’s true nature and hinder their …
The La Follette Dynasty, Nancy Unger
The La Follette Dynasty, Nancy Unger
History
This essay traces the political dynasty of the La Follette family of Wisconsin. The bulk of attention is paid to Robert and Belle La Follette, two key players in Progressive Era politics, but other family members are also detailed, including their children Fola, Robert Jr., and Phillip, and later generations including Bronson and Doug La Follette.
Women And Gender: Useful Categories Of Analysis In Environmental History, Nancy Unger
Women And Gender: Useful Categories Of Analysis In Environmental History, Nancy Unger
History
In 1990, Carolyn Merchant proposed, in a roundtable discussion published in The Journal of American History, that gender perspective be added to the conceptual frameworks in environmental history. 1 Her proposal was expanded by Melissa Leach and Cathy Green in the British journal Environment and History in 1997. 2 The ongoing need for broader and more thoughtful and analytic investigations into the powerful relationship between gender and the environment throughout history was confirmed in 2001 by Richard White and Vera Norwood in "Environmental History, Retrospect and Prospect," a forum in the Pacific Historical Review. Both Norwood, in her provocative contribution …
La Follette’S Autobiography: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, And The Glorious, Nancy Unger
La Follette’S Autobiography: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, And The Glorious, Nancy Unger
History
La Follette's Autobiography: A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences is a remarkable primary document of the Progressive Era. Originally published in 1913, it remains in print today and has the dubious honor of being one of Richard Nixon's three favorite books. It illuminates the crucial role that La Follette's home state of Wisconsin played in molding La Follette as a man and as a politician, thereby influencing his national progressive agenda; but it also reveals much more.
Why Mccain And His Running Mate Demand Special Scrutiny, Nancy Unger
Why Mccain And His Running Mate Demand Special Scrutiny, Nancy Unger
History
The supporters of presidential candidate John McCain aggressively pooh-pooh concerns about his age and health history. That which hasn't killed him, they argue, has made him stronger. But a study of past American leaders reveals that those who think McCain's long history of toughness makes him invincible had better think again. Of the eight presidents who have died in office, four were killed by assassins. Youth and a clean bill of health remain no match for bullets. The running mates of even young and vigorous presidents should be completely qualified to take over all presidential duties in a heartbeat. But …
How Did Belle La Follette Resist Racial Segregation In Washington D.C., 1913-1914?, Nancy Unger
How Did Belle La Follette Resist Racial Segregation In Washington D.C., 1913-1914?, Nancy Unger
History
Beginning in 1913, progressive reformer Belle Case La Follette wrote a series of articles for the "women's page" of her family's magazine, denouncing the sudden racial segregation in several departments of the federal government. Those articles reveal progressive efforts to appeal specifically to women to combat injustice, and also demonstrate the ability of women to voice important political opinions prior to suffrage.
The Case For Cautious Optimism: California Environmental Propositions In The Late Twentieth Century, Marie Bolton, Nancy Unger
The Case For Cautious Optimism: California Environmental Propositions In The Late Twentieth Century, Marie Bolton, Nancy Unger
History
The efficacy of direct democracy throughout California's history continues to be a subject of intense debate, a state-wide phenomenon with an international audience. California boasts the world's fifth largest economy, and plays a leadership role in national, and sometimes even international, politics. British scholar Wyn Grant, studying the politics of air quality management in California, succinctly sums up the burning issue for environmentalists worldwide who are striving to understand the efficacy of California's activists' efforts: in "Direct Democracy in California: Example or Warning?" Grant concludes that although direct democracy has its merits, its history in California ultimately provides more of …
"I Went To Learn," Meanings Of The European Tour Of Senator Robert M. La Follette, 1923, Nancy Unger
"I Went To Learn," Meanings Of The European Tour Of Senator Robert M. La Follette, 1923, Nancy Unger
History
In 1923, progressive Senator Robert M. La Follette, an astute observer of government, economics, and social conditions, toured Europe in preparation for his third-party presidential bid. This article examines that trip and its legacy, particularly in relation to Daniel T. Rodgers' 1998 book Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age.1
The Burden Of A Great Name: Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Nancy Unger
The Burden Of A Great Name: Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Nancy Unger
History
In 1925, following the death of the progressive giant Robert Marion La Follette, the people of Wisconsin elected the 30-year-old son who bore his name to complete his father's term in the United States Senate. Throughout his life, Robert La Follette, Jr. ' s sense· of self- natural interests, hobbies, ideas, and ambitions-never fully emerged and developed, so pressured was he to carry out his parents' will, especially his father's. Despite his initial reluctance to serve as his father's political successor, "Young Bob" went on to serve a total of 21 years in the Senate, three more than his famous …
The ‘Political Suicide’ Of Robert M. La Follette: Public Disaster, Private Catharsis, Nancy Unger
The ‘Political Suicide’ Of Robert M. La Follette: Public Disaster, Private Catharsis, Nancy Unger
History
On February 2, 1912, progressive Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette gave a speech at the Periodical Publishers Association banquet in Philadelphia that altered not only the course of his presidential campaign, but the course of his entire subsequent career. He lashed out publicly at members of the press with such a complete lack of self-control that it haunted him forever (most notably during his opposition to U.S. entry into World War I and during his final presidential bid in 1924). This public breakdown perplexed contemporaries and has baffled historians. Existing explanations of the origins and implications of the shocking …