History Commons^™

Fall/Winter 2013, Full Issue

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

“I Will Continue To Make The Best Defense I Can”: Edward Bates And The Battle Over The Missouri Constitution Of 1865, Mark Alan Neels

The Confluence (2009-2020)

Crafting a new constitution for Missouri was politically charged, with careers and reputations both made and broken in the battle. Central to it was Lincoln’s former Attorney General Edward Bates of Missouri.

From The Editor, Jeffrey Smith

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

Where We Stand: The Competitiveness Of The St. Louis Region, John Posey, Mary Ricchio

The Confluence (2009-2020)

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments publishes its “Where We Stand” work that analyzes the place of the St. Louis region in the context of other cities. In this article, John Posey and Mary Ricchio interpret and analyze those standings.

“Everything May Yet Turn Out All Right”: An Architect’S Adventures In 1939-40 Europe, Miranda Rectenwald

The Confluence (2009-2020)

When Washington University sent young architect Victor Gilbertson to Europe to study church architecture in 1939, officials knew a war was brewing. What they didn’t realize was that Gilbertson would end up in the middle of the start of a global conflict. His correspondence to and from St. Louis suggests the perils of a young architect.

China’S Participation In The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Brian Arendt

The Confluence (2009-2020)

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition was a “world’s” fair in more ways than one. While it featured exhibits from regions around the globe, it was also embroiled in international politics between the United States and China shaped by American policy and European imperialism, as Brian Arendt demonstrates here.

The Lost Opportunity For Ethiopia: The Failure To Move Toward Democratic Governance, Theodor Vestal

International Journal of African Development

During the critical five year period leading up to the velvet revolution and the overthrow of Haile Selassie’s regime, there were missed opportunities to bring about peaceful change in Ethiopia’s governance. This paper analyzes the events of this period that led to the rise of the Derg and the revolutionary changes that followed and speculates on when strategic steps could have been taken to avoid the catastrophic events that ensued in 1974.

With An Eye On A Set Of New Eyes: Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Kette Thomas

Journal of Religion & Film

This article focuses on how, Beasts of the Southern Wild, represents both divergence and transgression from paradigmatic structures that determine how certain visual representations are to be used. Specifically, the cinematic detours taken by the filmmakers, Lucy Alibar and Behn Zeitlin, do not lead to alien places for most viewers; on the contrary, ancient myths, legends, heroes and prehistoric references are recalled in total isolation from current social and political discourse. In this way, Beasts of the Southern Wild, effectively, highlights mythological structures operating in contemporary American society. Mircea Eliade, Roger Caillois and G.S. Kirk define mythology as a …

Megacities: A Survey And Prognosis, Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Europe As A Civilization: The Revolution Of The Middle Ages & The Rise Of The Universities, Toby E. Huff

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

David J. Rosner, Conservatism And Crisi, The Anti-Modernist Perspective In Twentieth-Century German Philosophy., Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Richard Lynn And Tatu Vanhanen, Intelligence: A Unifying Concept For The Social Sciences., Michael Andregg

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Between Stonewall And Aids: Initial Efforts To Establish Gay And Lesbian Social Services, Michael G. Lee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Little has been written about gay and lesbian communities' efforts to address health and human service concerns prior to the HIV/AIDS crisis. This article analyzes content from The Advocate along with organizational documents from the early 1970s to explore the health issues addressed by these fledgling providers. Major concerns identified include social adjustment to a gay or lesbian identity, chemical health, sexual health, and family supports. These findings depict a service context strained by funding instability, workplace turmoil, neighborhood hostility, and high levels of consumer needs that would later come to characterize the complex nature of AIDS service work.

Studies On Religion And Recidivism: Focus On Roxbury, Dorchester, And Mattapan, George Walters-Sleyon

Trotter Review

This research article raises the question of whether religion can be considered a viable partner in the reduction of the high rate of recidivism associated with the increasing mass incarceration in the United States. Can sustainable transformation in the life of a prisoner or former prisoner as a result of religious conversion be subjected to evidenced-based practices to derive impartial conclusions about the value of religion in their lives? With a particular focus on three neighborhoods of Boston—Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan—this study examines the relevance of religion and faith-based organizations in lowering the high rate of recidivism associated with incarceration …

The Personal And Family Challenges Of Reentry: Interview With Helen Credle, Kenneth J. Cooper

Trotter Review

For 40 years, Helen Credle has worked with prison inmates and exoffenders in Massachusetts, from inside or outside the state corrections system. The Boston native, who grew up in Roxbury, did not set out to become an advocate for prisoners and their families. Oddly, it was music that first took her inside prison walls and into that role. As director of community services for the New England Conservatory of Music, Credle organized concerts by bluesman B.B. King and balladeer Bobby Womack in state prisons. Her involvement grew deeper when the conservatory’s administrators and faculty members decided to teach inmates to …

Gray Matters Behind Bars, Howard Manly

Trotter Review

Forty years ago, the nation got tough on crime. It is now paying the price as the skyrocketing cost of incarcerating aging inmates is haunting state and federal prison budgets.

Life After Prison: A Different Kind Of Sentence?, A Forum At The Boston Center For The Arts, Andrea J. Cabral, Daniel Cordon, Lyn Levy, Gary Little, Janet Rodriguez

Trotter Review

In September 2012, the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) hosted a forum on life after prison as part of its series, Dialogue: Social Issues Examined Through the Playwright’s Pen. The forum coincided with performances at the Boston Center for the Arts of The MotherF**ker with the Hat, a play by Stephen Andy Guirgis about prisoner reentry.

Andrea J. Cabral, then sheriff of Suffolk County and secretary of public safety in Massachusetts, moderated the forum in BCA’s Calderwood Pavilion, the same theater where SpeakEasy Stage Company was putting on the play. The four panelists work for nonprofit organizations primarily …

Inside/Outside: A Model For Social Support And Rehabilitation Of Young Black Men, Harold Adams, Castellano Turner

Trotter Review

This paper first identifies some of the most important problems facing incarcerated young black males. Next, we present an historical analysis that pinpoints the War on Drugs as the primary origin of mass incarceration of that group. Then we describe the major consequences for prisoners as well as collateral problems for their families, friends, and communities. We then outline the types of programs created to address these problems. We summarize research that shows the key to solving high recidivism rates is social support during incarceration and after release. We describe in particular a Boston-based organization, the Committee of Friends and …

Stop And Frisk: From Slave-Catchers To Nypd, A Legal Commentary, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Trotter Review

Today’s “stop and frisk” practices stem from centuries of legal control of Africans in America. Colonial laws were drafted specifically to control Africans, enslaved and free. Slave catchers culled the woods in search of those Africans who dared escape. After slavery ended, “Black Codes” or criminal laws were enacted to ensnare African Americans, including the sinister convict-lease system that existed well into the twentieth century. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to extend police authority to stop and frisk during the Civil Rights Movement.

Police abuse of stop and frisk has led to tens of millions of people detained and searched …

Women's Resistance To Apartheid, Melinda Laber

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

Apartheid was an oppressively destructive system that influenced many lives, not only in South Africa, but also in many nearby provinces and countries. This influence occurred because apartheid was so morally wrong. It forced many men, women and children to be slaves in their own country. These people could not live their own lives. They were made to obey the laws of the white people with a nightmarish force that terrified all and killed thousands. Even those blacks that lived under apartheid lived in conditions that were more horrible …

Bantu Education, Andrew Phillips

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

South Africa has had to deal with issues of racial differences since colonial times. British settlers came into this foreign country and claimed it as their own. Until recently, these settlers were able to treat the black people of South Africa as a subservient and inferior race as a result of the system of apartheid. Many different strategies were needed to keep this imbalanced system in place. One such strategy was employed through education, or a lack thereof. As long as blacks received a lower quality education than whites, …

The Scholars' Initiative, Charles Ingrao

Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI) Policy Briefs

The Scholars’ Initiative addresses the need to break the cycle of nationalist discourse that perpetuates divisions between ethnic groups by (1) creating a common narrative that discredits proprietary myths, while validating “inconvenient facts” that must be acknowledged before mutual recognition and reconciliation can begin, and (2) enlisting regional media and political leaders to acknowledge (and hopefully) endorse) the existence of a common account co-authored by their own scholars.

From The Editor, Jeffrey Smith

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

“More Than A Fossil-Hunter: The Life And Pursuits Of Charles W. Beehler”, R. Bruce Mcmillan

The Confluence (2009-2020)

Besides being a noted paleontologist in the Gilded Age, Charles Beehler was also a noted inventor, manufacturer, and businessman— and he made Kimmswick famous for mastodon bones.

St. Louis Central Library At 100, Jean Gosebrink

The Confluence (2009-2020)

The St. Louis Public Library opened its renovated Central Library in downtown St. Louis in fall 2012 for the centennial of the building that was one of some 1,700 libraries funded by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Here’s what makes this Cass Gilbert design such a community asset.

Spring/Summer 2013, Full Issue

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

“Greedy Merchants And Idle Women: Economic Crisis And Community In The Lower Missouri Valley, 1819-1825”, Rebekah M.K. Mergenthal

The Confluence (2009-2020)

As a merchant economy emerged in Missouri River towns in the 1820s, so too did a rhetoric about the roles of women in this changing economy. Rebekah Mergenthal examines the debate about changing gender roles in an evolving market economy.

“St. Louis Through The Camera”, Miranda Rectenwald

The Confluence (2009-2020)

In 1892, St. Louis Autumnal Festivities Association published a booklet to promote the assets and amenities of St. Louis. Its photographs showed the city not as a grimy industrial metropolis, but in the most flattering light. They may say “the camera never lies,” but does it?

“The Forest For The Trees: The Benefits Of The Trees Of Forest Park”, John L. Wagner

The Confluence (2009-2020)

St. Louis was mostly exactly that—forest. After felling thousands of trees for the world’s fair and creating a new park, parts of Forest Park are still forested. John Wagner looks at tree plantings and species to determine if Forest Park is an environmentally sustainable park for the 21st century

News - Georgia State University - Gsu Library Receives $210,000 Neh Grant, Christian J. Steinmetz

Georgia Library Quarterly

Georgia State University Library recently received a $210,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for “Planning Atlanta: A New City in the Making, 1930s – 1990s”, submitted by librarian Joe Hurley (Principal Investigator) and history professor Kate Wilson (co-PI).