History Commons^™

The Farmers' Millennium: The Ideology Of Agricultural Improvement In Iowa, 1855 To 1865, Michael Belding Iii

Michael Belding III

The Morrill Act of 1862, a piece of federal legislation enacted a century and a half ago, lives on today. That law allocated thousands of acres of federal land to state governments, based on the size of their congressional delegations, so they could establish colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts and give a college education, liberal and practical, to students who could not otherwise afford one. The Morrill Act lives on because the "land-grant colleges" it endowed with financial resources still exist today, operating on billion-dollar budgets and enrolling tens of thousands of students. Further, at least at Iowa …

"Saper La Mente Della Soa Beatitudine": Pope Paul Ii And The Ambassadorial Community In Rome (1464-71), Paul M. Dover

Paul Dover

This article examines the practice of the ambassadors sent by the Italian states to the court of Pope Paul II (1464-1471), focusing in particular on how they have embraced their role as an informant. Since Paul was a pope unstable, often impenetrable and inaccessible, the ambassadors were often obliged to obtain information about the Pope and his intentions indirectly. Relying heavily on the Roman diplomatic correspondence during the pontificate of Paul, this article shows how ambassadors have built networks of contacts within the papal court to ensure a continuous supply of useful information and in time. These networks thus comprised …

Royal Diplomacy In Renaissance Italy: Ferrante D’Aragona (1458–1494) And His Ambassadors, Paul M. Dover

Paul Dover

This article examines the diplomatic challenges faced by the king of Naples, Ferrante d'Aragona (1458-1494) and the activity of his ambassadors in meeting those challenges. It identifies Rome, Florence and Milan as the three most important nodes of Ferrante's diplomacy and looks in detail at the activity of the ambassadors who served in these postings. In the area of diplomatic praxis, Ferrante enthusiastically embraced changes pioneered by Francesco Sforza, the Duke of Milan (1450-1466), including the use of permanent resident ambassadors and diplomatic chanceries. This was very much in keeping with Ferrante's pragmatic approach to statecraft and counters the widely …

Sexual Misconduct, Religion, And Culture, Alev Dudek

Alev Dudek

A Comprehensive Bibliography Of Nineteenth Century Bicycling Periodicals, Christopher A. Sweet

Christopher A. Sweet

Review Of Clayer And Bougarel, Europes Balkan Muslims A New History, Edin Hajdarpasic

Edin Hajdarpasic

No abstract provided.

Feminist Oral History Practice In An Era Of Digital Self-Representation, Margo Shea

Margo Shea

Karl Campbell.Jpg, Karl Campbell

Dr. Karl Campbell

No abstract provided.

Confederate Monuments Tell Wrong Story About History, Michael J. Slinger

Michael J. Slinger

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Essex Junto: Fear, Dissent, And Propaganda In The Early Republic, Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Historians have never formed a consensus over the Essex Junto. In fact, though often associated with New England Federalists, propagandists evoked the Junto long after the Federalist Party’s demise in 1824. This article chronicles uses of the term Essex Junto and its significance as it evolved from the early republic through the 1840s.

Book Review Of Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams And The Grand Strategy Of The Republic By Charles N. Edel, Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Review of Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic by Charles N. Edel.

Book Review Of Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter Of Monticello: Her Life And Times By Cynthia A. Kierner, Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times. By Cynthia A. Kierner. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012. Pp. ix, 281.)

A Call To Redefine Historical Scholarship In The Digital Turn, Jason A. Heppler, Douglas Seefeldt, Alex Galarza

Jason Heppler

This is a collaboratively-written call for the American Historical Association to appoint a task force to survey the profession as to the place of digital historical scholarship in promotion and tenure and graduate student training and to recommend standards and guidelines for the profession to follow. This document is a product of many of the exciting changes discussed below. It began at a session atTHATCamp AHA 2012 that included graduate students, tenured and non-tenured faculty, and librarians. These participants and others continued their conversations at the physical conference and afterwards on the web. Additional signatures and edits in the …

The Strand Theatre Fire

Nicole Casper

Prophecy And Porneia In Shenoute's Letters: The Rhetoric Of Sexuality In A Late Antique Egyptian Monastery, Caroline T. Schroeder

Caroline Schroeder

The writer examines the apparently ubiquitous sexual references in the first surviving letters of Shenoute. Shenoute's references to sexuality constitute one aspect of his self-representation as his community's prophet. His textual performance as a prophet in these texts indicates that his sexual rhetoric served not only to condemn sexual activity among ascetics but also to help construct a relationship between God and the monastic community that is based on the relationship between God and the people in the Christian Old Testament. The sins of the monastery, as understood by Shenoute, like those of Israel or the nations in the prophetic …

Passeth The Cran’Brry Sauce: The Medieval Origins Of Thanksgiving, Ken Albala

Ken Albala

No abstract provided.

Ovid Butler And The Founding Of Butler University, Sally Childs-Helton

Sally Childs-Helton

Without Ovid Butler, there would be no Butler University today. The history of the man and the university are intimately and inextricably entwined; without Ovid Butler's vision, leadership, and financial support, the university may not have come into being, or survived its early years. One hundred and sixty years after it was chartered, Butler University today is a private, not-for-profit, comprehensive university located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Butler offers more than 65 majors from six colleges: Liberal Arts and Sciences, Education, Pharmacy, Business, Fine Arts, and Communication. The unofficial fall semester 2010 enrollment is 4,051 full-time undergraduates and 4,575 total students …

A Mini-History Of Computing, George K. Thiruvathukal

George K. Thiruvathukal

This book was produced by George K. Thiruvathukal for the American Institute of Physics to promote interest in the interdisciplinary publication, Computing in Science and Engineering. It accompanied a limited edition set of playing cards that is no longer available (except in PDF). This book features a set of 54 significant computers by era/category, including ancient calculating instruments, pre-electronic mechanical calculators and computers, electronic era computers, and modern computing (minicomputers, maniframes, personal computers, devices, and gaming consoles).

The Top 10 Considerations When Using Primary Sources With Grades 8-12, Lee Eysturlid

Lee W. Eysturlid

Too often teachers are confronted with the expectation of using “primary sources” without any thoughtful discussion of how to do so or why one should. The following points will hopefully act as a catalyst for thinking about the “how” and the “why” of effectively using primary sources.

The Barber Who Read History And Was Overwhelmed, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

"The Church Or The Wheel?" Religious Institutions Respond To The American Bicycle Boom.Pptx, Christopher A. Sweet

Christopher A. Sweet

Historic Acadia National Park, Catherine Schmitt

Catherine Schmitt

The Politics Of Protection: Interpreting Commercial Policy In Late Bourbon And Early National Mexico, Richard Salvucci, Linda Salvucci, Aslán Cohen

Linda K Salvucci

The breadth, depth, and persistence of political instability in independent Mexico have long been the object of historians' attention. "Mexico," writes one, "experimented with monarchy, moderate constitutional republic, radical populist regime, conservative government, and liberal government; each in turn failed to produce stability." From 1824 through 1853, Mexico experienced the "institutionalized disorder" of "manifold pronunciamientos . . . endless cabinet changes, and several lurches to the political left or right." Repeatedly invaded, blockaded, partitioned, and plunged into civil war between 1835 and 1867, Mexico was for most of its early history more a geographical expression than a political one. "The …

Anglo-American Merchants And Stratagems For Success In Spanish Imperial Markets, 1783-1807, Linda Salvucci

Linda K Salvucci

When Josiah Blakeley, consul of the United States at Santiago de Cuba, wrote these lines to Secretary of State James Madison on November 1, 1801 he had recently been jailed by administrators on that island. This remarkable situation notwithstanding, his sentiments still neatly express the paradox of trade between the United States and Spanish Caribbean ports. The expanding hinterlands of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore furnished North American merchants with ever increasing, exportable food supplies and led to fierce competition for new markets at the end of the eighteenth century. At the same time, Spain's American colonies remained chronically, often …

Preventing And Treating Narcotic Addiction — A Century Of Federal Drug Control, David Courtwright

David T. Courtwright

The Power Of The Purse, George W. Geib

George W. Geib

The Army finance office was born two centuries ago in the midst of the American Revolution. From the golden orle insignia that legend reports was first authorized by George Washington, to the outline of its modern functions and limitations that emerged during the war, the service took form in the critical years of the struggle for independence.

Development And Preservation, George W. Geib

George W. Geib

Details the history of two Marion County Courthouses.

Benjamin Harrison, George W. Geib

George W. Geib

An account of Benjamin Harrison's rise to the presidency beginning with his successful career during the Civil War.

Partitioned Lives: Migrants, Refugees, Citizens In India And Pakistan, 1947-65, Haimanti Roy

Haimanti Roy

Partitioned States offers new perspective in the histories of Partition and its aftermath by connecting it to the long, drawn out and skewed formation of new national entities: India and East Pakistan. The book focuses on the Bengal Partition and locates its narrative within the intersection of long term cross border movement, chronic small-scale violence, the emergence of a document regime, and biased national refugee policies, all of which contributed to the formation of national citizenships in India and East Pakistan. This book argues that minorities -- Hindus in East Pakistan, Muslims in eastern India -- and the discourse over …

Response To Commentary On “Rethinking Combined Departments: An Argument For History & Anthropology” By Stephen M. Lyon/Durham University, Uk; Yasar Abu Ghosh, Pavel Himl, Tereza Stöckelová, Lucie Storchová/Charles University, Prague; Robert Gibb/University Of Glasgow; Jakob Krause-Jensen/Aarhus University, Denmark; Veerendra P. Lele/Denison University, Ageeth Sluis, Elise Edwards

Ageeth Sluis

Contains response from the authors, Ageeth Sluis and Elise Edwards.