History Commons^™

The Problems Of Personalism Today, Bennett Gilbert

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

In lieu of an abstract, here is a short excerpt:

I shall speak today, generally and just within my 15 minutes, about the problems of personalism today—that is, its current position in philosophy and its internal stresses that must be addressed to improve that situation. My comments are the first fruits of my next book, now under way, which will develop a renewed humanism on a personalistic basis by reformulating a foundation for personalism. The book will also apply this personalism to the challenges of the Anthropocene and particularly of transhumanism. For reasons I will explain, no one has yet …

Conducting Oral History: Background And Methods, Katrine Barber

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter-length essay describes the practice of oral history through real world examples: the steps to conducting oral history interviews, things to consider when developing a project or an interview plan, and ethical considerations. How oral history has enlarged the historical record and changed scholarly interpretation of the past are highlighted.

Book Review Of, The Nature Of The Game: Links Golf At Bandon Dunes And Far Beyond By Mike Keiser With Stephen Goodwin (Review), William Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 1999, Mike Keiser and his associates welcomed golfers to a new and remarkable links golf course on the southern Oregon coast near the town of Bandon. At the mouth of the Coquille River and small bay some thirty miles south of Coos Bay, Bandon had begun as a mining camp in the 1850s and developed an economy in the late nineteenth century based on fishing, logging, dairying, and cranberry cultivation. The area’s spectacular coastline brought tourists, but nothing quite prepared the town for the advent of world-class golf courses — six in total at Bandon Dunes — and an …

9/11, Culture War, And The Pitfalls Of History, David Horowitz

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

9/11 marks one of the traumatic events of modern U. S. history. Yet its occurrence and aftermath must be placed in the context of social movements and global developments. This presentation focuses on getting past political and social divisiveness. Professor Horowitz has taught at Portland State since 1968, where he won a prize for outstanding achievement in 2007. He is co-author of a U.S. history textbook and has a number of publications to his credit. He is the author of a personal, professional, and political memoir with the title “Getting There: An American Cultural Odyssey.”

Remarks At The Park Blocks Ceremony Dedicating A Plaque To Commemorate The Psu Student Antiwar Strike Of May 1970, David Horowitz

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Remarks at the Park Blocks Ceremony Dedicating a Plaque to Commemorate the PSU Student Antiwar Strike of May 1970

The West And Congressional Fights Before The Civil War: Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series Post-Lecture Discussion, William L. Lang, Jeffrey Ostler, Stacey L. Smith, Kenneth R. Coleman

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This roundtable conversation was hosted virtually on Thursday, March 18, 2021, as a follow-up to a lecture two days prior. The transcript has been edited for clarity.

Commentary On 50 Years Of Teaching At The Psu History Awards Ceremony, David A. Horowitz

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Commentary presented at: PSU History Awards ceremony, June 14, 2019.

"We Were At Our Journey's End" : Settler Sovereignty Formation In Oregon, Katrine Barber

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

For too long, Oregon history has been captive to the mid-nineteenth-century’s rambling wagon trains. Settler stories of motivations, hardships, and achievements, preserved in diaries, letters, and memoirs, are compelling and deserving of the attention lavished on them. But more is necessary. Oregon’s Euro-Americans were intimately tied to national and international events that saw the rise of White, European colonial expansion into the colored word. Alongside that expansion was the development of a framework of domination, justified by claims of superiority and destiny, that conflated the ability to control with the right to do so. Placing Oregon history in this larger …

Invisible Walls Mapping Residential Segregation In Portland, Katrine Barber

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

In spring 2018, students in a Portland State University (PSU) course set out to understand how barriers to home ownership among families of color — as well as resistance to those barriers — have historical and continuing influence on our city. Over the previous year, a conversation with Ryan Curren of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, who had contacted PSU’s History Department for research assistance, gave rise to the crowdsourcing of deeds holding restrictive covenants, the PSU class described here, and a partnership with the Vanport Mosaic (vanportmosaic.org) — a local nonprofit that works to amplify, honor, and preserve …

Book Review Of, Fur Trade Gamble: North West Company On The Pacific Slope, 1800-1820 By Lloyd Keith And John C. Jackson, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Earliest American Map Of The Northwest Coast: John Hoskins's A Chart Of The Northwest Coast Of America Sketched On Board The Ship Columbia Rediviva ... 1791 & 1792, James V. Walker, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Between 1790 and 1793, John Hoskins created a map of the Northwest Coast of North America that included ninety-one place names documenting Native communities. The map is the earliest example of such detailed documentation by an American and was rediscovered in 1852 at the Cartographic Archives Division of the National Archives and Records Administration. In this research article, James Walker and William Lang provide a historical context for the map, including comparative charts that break down the Native names that Hoskins documented into seven cultural groups. According to Walker and Lang, the map “opens a window to what American traders …

The Histories Of New York City’S Parks, Catherine Mcneur

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is the introduction to the Journal of Planning History volume 16 issue 2, 2017.

Parks, People, And Property Values: The Changing Role Of Green Spaces In Antebellum Manhattan, Catherine Mcneur

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

The role that parks played in Manhattan changed dramatically during the antebellum period. Originally dismissed as unnecessary on an island embraced by rivers, parks became a tool for real estate development and gentrification in the 1830s. By the 1850s, politicians, journalists, and landscape architects believed Central Park could be a social salve for a city with rising crime rates, increasingly visible poverty, and deepening class divisions. While many factors (public health, the psychological need for parks, and property values) would remain the same, the changing social conversation showed how ideas of public space were transforming, in rhetoric if not reality.

Book Review Of, The Shiites Of Lebanon Under Ottoman Rule, 1516-1788, James Grehan

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book by Stefan Winter. The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516-1788. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Book Review Of, Black Woman Reformer: Ida B. Wells, Lynching, And Transatlantic Activism, Patricia A. Schechter

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book by Sarah L. Silkey. "Black Woman Reformer: Ida B. Wells, Lynching, and Transatlantic Activism". Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2015.

From Stumptown To Treetown: A Field Guide For Interpreting Portland’S History Though Its Heritage Trees, David-Paul B. Hedberg

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland’s urban forest is rooted in the city’s history. This guide is the first of its kind to use historic literature, archival collections, and living trees as evidence to interpret Portland’s history. Trees are some of our city’s oldest living artifacts and this guide will show you some of the many ways to see and interpret both history and nature in Portland.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett And The Carceral State, Patricia A. Schechter

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

My remarks today are entitled "Ida B. Wells-Barnett and the Carceral State." I want to focus on the carceral state—that is, the government functions of 'confining, surveillance and punishment'—in order to engage with some recent scholarship on race, policing, and imprisonment in the United States. These are topics that Wells-Barnett had a great deal to say about hundred years ago, especially as related to lynching. I’d like to suggest that her work in prison reform, probation work, and advocacy for inmates back in the progressive era connects to the contemporary crisis around race and mass incarceration in important ways.

The Lumberman's Frontier: Three Centuries Of Land Use, Society, And Change In America's Forests, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

A review of the book "The Lumberman's Frontier: Three Centuries of Land Use, Society, and Change in America's Forests," by Thomas R. Cox is presented.

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals And The Making Of Modern America, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

A review of the book "Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America," by Richard White is presented.

¡Adelante Hermanas De La Raza! Josefina Silva De Cintrón, Artes Y Letras, And Puerto Rican Women’S Feminismo In The 1930s, Patricia A. Schechter

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article tells the story of Josefina Silva de Cintrón, (1884-1988), Puerto Rican journalist, feminist and arts impresario. Silva de Cintrón moved from San Juan to New York City in 1927. She published the Spanish language journal Artes y Letras from 1933 to 1939, and it circulated in 8 countries throughout the Americas. Artes y Letras was a publication that significantly enabled Spanish-speaking women’s activism in New York City. In its pages, women tested their ideas about feminismo. Their feminismo was Pan American in orientation and anti-racist in purpose, energized by the rhetoric of la raza. This article …

The Sicuro File: A Personal Perspective On The Struggle Over Portland State University’S Most Controversial President, David Horowitz

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay offers a personal recounting of Sicuro’s tumultuous tenure and “the great governance issue of Portland State’s history,” as institutional historian Gordon B. Dodds has described it.2 By tracing a curious path from allegations of minor improprieties among favored student government leaders to widespread contention over the management style and behavior of a controversial academic leader, it traces my tangential but deeply engaged role in the dramatic power struggle erupting at Oregon’s largest urban university in the late 1980s. In doing so, it highlights significant issues affecting modern university life, from race relations, the role of competitive sports, student …

The Meaning Of Falling Water: Celilo Falls And The Dalles In Historical Literature, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discusses the changing meaning attached to Celilo Falls and The Dalles and how these places were represented in the published literature from the 1807 edition of Lewis and Clark Expedition sergeant Patrick Gass's journal through the 2006 publication of Joseph C. Dupris, Kathleen S. Hill, and William Rodgers, Jr.'s 'The Si'lailo Way: Indians, Salmon, and Law on the Columbia River.' The article examines many topics, including early Euro-American incursions, the changes wrought by the Native American land cessions in 1855, and the development of hydroelectric power on the Columbia River, particularly The Dalles Dam, completed in 1957, which destroyed ancient …

1949: Year Of Decision On The Columbia River, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Someone new to the Pacific Northwest and seeing the Columbia River for the first time could have no idea what the Great River of the West looked like before the building of the big dams. The Columbia's character and its muscle are generally hidden from view, deep in the old river channel and in the guts of machines that span the river like stair steps, from Bonneville Dam near Portland to Mica Dam at the river's far northern turn in British Columbia.

Dissecting The Columbia: Lewis And Clark West Of The Divide, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduces a special issue of the 'Oregon Historical Quarterly' on the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the area west of the Continental Divide. The issue deals with the explorers' descriptions of the Columbia River Basin and its flora, fauna, native people, and geography; the accuracy of their scientific observations; their geographic discoveries; and other topics.

Describing A New Environment: Lewis And Clark And Enlightenment Science In The Columbia River Basin, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

As part of a special issue of the 'Oregon Historical Quarterly,' examines the scientific aspect of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, focusing on the gathering, cataloging, and describing of plants and animals in the Columbia River Basin. Instructed by Thomas Jefferson to gather information on new species of plants and animals, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark collected specimens as they crossed the Continental Divide and entered the Columbia River Basin. Although Lewis generally held a negative view of the Indians the expedition encountered, he recorded their use of fish, plants, and game animals, and the Corps of Discovery traded with …

Beavers, Firs, Salmon, And Falling Water: Pacific Northwest Regionalism And The Environment, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discusses the importance of salmon in defining environmental understanding in the Pacific Northwest. Dam construction, population influx, economic development, and politics have dramatically changed the geography of Oregon Country since 1850. The technological alterations and population growth redefined the sense of place. However, salmon has remained the most important icon of the Pacific Northwest, both for Native Americans and for nonnatives have who worked to save the salmon from extinction. Salmon have become a "living metaphor" for the region, and their fate reflects an understanding of historical context and the role of people in their relationship to the environment in …

Bioregionalism And The History Of Place, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduces a forum on bioregionalism and historiography, a concept that goes beyond the sense of place to include region in a natural rather than a political sense. Examples include watersheds, landscapes, and expectations from nature. The concept, which surfaced in the 1970's, is a dynamic one that links physical nature and how humans understand it.

The Columbia River's Fate In The Twentieth Century, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discusses the history of the Columbia River during the 20th century, emphasizing the image of the river as both a source of industry and an example of wild natural beauty. In 1933 the river was dammed to harness its power for hydroelectricity and control its unpredictable flooding. With the completion of the dams in the 1970's, however, came problems with the edenic vision of the river, especially with the annual salmon run. By the late 20th century, the salmon had all but disappeared, leading to an ongoing conflict between supporters of the dams and conservationists.

Lewis And Clark And The American Century: A Review Of Ken Burns's Pbs Series On The Corps Of Discovery, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews Ken Burns's 1997 public television documentary on the Lewis and Clark expedition, 'Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery.' In his documentaries Burns seeks not just the "dry relation of fact," but a portrayal of the emotional truth of the historical event that allows viewers to connect with it as human drama. Burns has exploited well the inherent drama of the expedition's story to produce a compelling documentary. Rather than labeling it a work of history, based on explanation through critical inquiry, it is better seen as a "heritage" film. The latter identifies and celebrates virtues …

Lewis And Clark On The Columbia River: The Power Of Landscape In The Exploration Experience, William L. Lang

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

During their 1804-06 transcontinental expedition, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark expected that the Columbia River and its tributaries would provide relatively easy passage to the Pacific Coast. Instead, they encountered a formidable barrier of raging waters and disjunctive ecological zones. Continuous frustrations caused the explorers to offer harsh judgments of the landscape and some of the Indians, whom they labeled as primitive and treacherous. These descriptions contrasted greatly with their more positive portrayals of landscape and peoples encountered elsewhere during the trip.