History Commons^™

The Seven Spices: Pumpkins, Puritans, And Pathogens In Colonial New England, Michael Sharbaugh

Michael D Sharbaugh

Water sources in the United States' New England region are laden with arsenic. Particularly during North America's colonial period--prior to modern filtration processes--arsenic would make it into the colonists' drinking water. In this article, which evokes the biocultural evolution paradigm, it is argued that colonists offset health risks from the contaminant (arsenic poisoning) by ingesting copious amounts of seven spices--cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, vanilla, and ginger. The inclusion of these spices in fall and winter recipes that hail from New England would therefore explain why many Americans associate them not only with the region, but with Thanksgiving and Christmas, …

Digitizing Immigrant And Homeland Letters: Problems And Opportunities, Dominic Pacyga

Dominic Pacyga

No abstract provided.

Book Session: The American Urban Reader: History And Theory, Steven Corey

Steven H. Corey

No abstract provided.

California History: Expanding The Narrative Of The First Californians, Cynthia Taylor

Cynthia Taylor

Review Of Michael Rawson, Eden On The Charles: The Making Of Boston, Steven Corey

Steven H. Corey

No abstract provided.

Chicago: A Biography, Dominic Pacyga

Dominic Pacyga

Chicago has been called by many names. Nelson Algren declared it a “City on the Make.” Carl Sandburg dubbed it the “City of Big Shoulders.” Upton Sinclair christened it “The Jungle,” while New Yorkers, naturally, pronounced it “the Second City.”

At last there is a book for all of us, whatever we choose to call Chicago. In this magisterial biography, historian Dominic Pacyga traces the storied past of his hometown, from the explorations of Joliet and Marquette in 1673 to the new wave of urban pioneers today. The city’s great industrialists, reformers, and politicians—and, indeed, the many not-so-great and downright …

Mountain Men And The Fur Trade In Idaho, Barton Barbour

Barton H. Barbour

No abstract provided.

Responding To The Second Ghetto: Chicago's Joe Smith And Sin Corner, Dominic Pacyga

Dominic Pacyga

World War Two and its aftermath transformed Chicago's African American community. The Great Migration entered a second and more intense phase as black migrants flooded into Northern cities. This massive relocation of Southern blacks resulted in the expansion and reformulation of Chicago's ghettoes on both the West and South Sides of the city. The question of a response to this Second Ghetto from African Americans themselves presents itself. White politicians, cultural elites and businessmen still controlled the city and could impose their will on its neighborhoods simply redrawing ghetto boundaries to reflect the new realities of the postwar era. The …

Caught In The Middle: Navigating The Clergy-Laity Gap During The Vietnam War, Jill Gill

Jill K. Gill

Executives within many mainline denominations, such as the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, were frustrated by their inability to inspire widespread debate and action at the congregational level about the Vietnam War Using the UPCUSA as a case study, this article argues that parish clergy functioned as the primary bottlenecks between the denominations and the congregations, constricting the flow of information largely because of their uncomfortable, precarious, middle position between liberal leadership and more conservative laity. By ming clergy journals and citing pastors in their own words, this essay illustrates the ambivalence local ministers felt toward …

The House That "Equality" Built: The Asian American Movement And The Legacy Of Community Action, Karen Tani

Karen M Tani

"President Lyndon Baines Johnson liked to quote the prophet Isaiah. 'Come, let us reason together,' Johnson sometimes said (assuming the voice of God) as he prepared to exercise his famous powers of persuasion. But Johnson was no literalist. Jesus told his disciples that the poor would be 'with you always.' Johnson and the other architects of the Great Society disagreed. Convinced that privation had no place in modern America, they confidently launched the concatenation of federal initiatives known as the War on Poverty. That war is now over; the poor, as predicted, remain. Yet the battle mattered--not because it was …

The Irish American Family, Patricia Fanning

Patricia J. Fanning

No abstract provided.

Visions Of A Better World: Howard Thurman's Pilgrimage To India And The Origins Of African American Nonviolence, Quinton Dixie, Peter Eisenstadt

Quinton H Dixie

No abstract provided.

Institutional Functional Analysis At Northern Michigan University: A New Process Of Appraisal And Arrangement Of Archival Records, Marcus Robyns

Marcus C. Robyns CA

This article argues in favor of institutional functional analysis as an effective tool for appraisal of institutional archival records.