History Commons^™

Invisible Enemies: The American War On Vietnam, 1975-2000, Edwin Martini

Edwin A. Martini

Beginning where most histories of the Vietnam War end, Invisible Enemies examines the relationship between the United States and Vietnam following the American pullout in 1975. Drawing on a broad range of sources, from White House documents and congressional hearings to comic books and feature films, Edwin Martini shows how the United States continued to wage war on Vietnam "by other means" for another twenty-five years. In addition to imposing an extensive program of economic sanctions, the United States opposed Vietnam's membership in the United Nations, supported the Cambodians, including the Khmer Rouge, in their decade-long war with the Vietnamese, …

Distress During The Great Depression: The Illiquidity-Insolvency Debate Revisited, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

During the contraction from 1929 to 1933, the Federal Reserve System tracked changes in the status of all banks operating in the United States and determined the cause of each bank suspension. This essay analyzes chronological patterns in aggregate series constructed from that data. The analysis demonstrates both illiquidity and insolvency were substantial sources of bank distress. Periods of heightened distress were correlated with periods of increased illiquidity. Contagion via correspondent networks and bank runs propagated the initial banking panics. As the depression deepened and asset values declined, insolvency loomed as the principal threat to depository institutions.

Recent Developments In American Religious History, Cynthia Taylor

Cynthia Taylor

Deposit Insurance And Moral Hazard: Capital, Risk, Malfeasance, And Mismanagement. A Comment On ‘Deposit Insurance And Moral Hazard: Evidence From Texas Banking During The 1920s, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

A Journal of Economic History article by Linda Hooks and Kenneth Robinson, “Deposit Insurance and Moral Hazard: Evidence from Texas Banking During the 1920s,” contains a contradiction (Hooks and Robinson 2002). Pondering the contradiction in the paper reveals insights that the authors may have overlooked. Hooks and Robinson’s article examines the experience of the banking industry in Texas during the 1920s. Texas operated a deposit-insurance system from January 1, 1910 until February 11, 1927. Deposit insurance was mandatory for all state banks, which were given the choice of two plans in which to participate. The preponderance participated in the depositors …

Check Is In The Mail: Correspondent Clearing And The Banking Panics Of The Great Depression, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

Weaknesses within the check-clearing system played a hitherto unrecognized role in the banking crises of the Great Depression. Correspondent check-clearing networks were vulnerable to counter-party cascades. Accounting conventions that overstated reserves available to corresponding institutions may have exacerbated the situation. The initial banking panic began when a correspondent network centered in Nashville collapsed, forcing over 100 institutions to suspend operations. As the contraction continued, additional correspondent systems imploded. The vulnerability of correspondent networks is one reason that banks that cleared via correspondents failed at higher rates than other institutions during the Great Depression.

Lift Every Voice: African American Oratory, 1787-1900. – Book Review, Amilcar Shabazz

Amilcar Shabazz

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, The Untold Story Of An American Legend (Book Review), Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

Review of the book "Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend", by Scott Reynolds Nelson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Rites Of August First: Emancipation Day In The Black Atlantic World, Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie

Working On The Railroad (Book Review), Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

Review of the book "Working on the Railroad", by Brian Solomon. Osceola, WI: Voyageur Press, 2006.

Women In Railroading, Linda Niemann, Shirley Burman

Linda G. Niemann

No abstract provided.

Native People Of North America: A History, John Bowes

John P. Bowes

For those who teach survey courses, a textbook often serves as a foundation for classroom discussions and lectures. The book provides the basic material and overview so that classroom presentations have the opportunity to be more wide-ranging or specific depending on the teacher’s preference. A well constructed textbook is an extremely valuable tool. At present, instructors of American history have a plethora of options from which to choose. This is not the case with those of us who teach Native American history or Native studies. Consequently, it is always heartening to see someone attempt to create an overview of historical …

Mary Todd Lincoln Exhibition, Virginia Heaven

Virginia Heaven

Period dress consultant.

Exiles And Pioneers: Eastern Indians In The Trans-Mississippi West, John Bowes

John P. Bowes

Exiles and Pioneers focuses on the experiences of Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandot, and Potawatomi Indians from the late 1700s to the 1860s. The book uses this multi-tribal perspective to argue that these Indian communities both benefited and suffered from the ineffective policies of the federal government during this period of relentless western expansion.

Hanoi Journal, 1967, Carol Mceldowney, Elizabeth Mock, Suzanne Mccormack

Elizabeth Mock

Carol McEldowney was an activist for human rights issues and in the antiwar movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. As part of a group of ten activists, she traveled to North Vietnam in 1967 for a month long journey to learn about the Vietnamese people and their society to counter the censored images the activists believed were being presented by the U.S. government. Her journal of this trip details her observations and discussions on issues of the military, health and political issues, and women's roles in North Vietnam

Foreword - Reinterpreting The 1920s, Lynn Dumenil

Lynn Dumenil

No abstract provided.

Fur Trade, Barton Barbour

Barton H. Barbour

No abstract provided.

'Mississippi Summer Project 1964' And 'National Council Of Churches', Jill Gill

Jill K. Gill

No abstract provided.

Demanding The Cherokee Nation: Indian Autonomy And American Culture, 1830-1900, John Bowes

John P. Bowes

In Demanding the Cherokee Nation, Andrew Denson takes on two very important tasks. First, he addresses the history of the Cherokee Nation in the years after their forced removal west of the Mississippi River. Second, he examines in great detail the ways the Cherokee leadership defined, protected, and promoted the political autonomy of the Cherokee Nation in relation to the U.S. government in the mid- to late nineteenth century. Other historians, most notably William McLoughlin, have written about the postremoval experience of the Cherokee and have illustrated the necessity of discussing the years after the Trail of Tears. But no …

Why The Rwandan Genocide Seemed Like A Drive-By Shooting: The Crisis Of Race, Culture, And Policy In The African Diaspora, Seneca Vaught

Seneca Vaught

From the American perspective, the Rwandan genocide developed amidst a cultural and racial crisis of the 1990s. The American attitude towards the crisis in Kigali provides a complex historical case study on how race and culture have profound and often-ignored policy implications. Specifically, the lack of American intervention in Rwanda reveals the complexity race and policy in American history and the shared fates of Africans throughout the world. Taken as a whole, the domestic cultural background of the early 1990s, including the rise of gangsta rap, rioting, and the dilemma of "black-on-black crime," collectively influenced American policy towards Africa at …

The Boundaries Between Us: Natives And Newcomers Along The Frontiers Of The Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850, John Bowes

John P. Bowes

Of the eleven essays included in The Boundaries between Us, only the final two fail to reference Richard White’s The Middle Ground in their endnotes. This does not come as a surprise, because this collection revolves around the Old Northwest Territory and because White’s interpretive framework has loomed so large over American Indian historiography in the fifteen years since its publication. Yet the strength and popularity of the middle ground as a concept might be viewed as both a blessing and a curse.

“‘The City I Used To...Visit’: Tourist New Orleans And The Racialized Response To Hurricane Katrina”, Lynnell Thomas

Lynnell Thomas

This article explores the connections between New Orleans’s late 20th-century tourism representations and the mainstream media coverage and national images of the city immediately following Hurricane Katrina. It pays particular attention to the ways that race and class are employed in both instances to create and perpetuate a distorted sense of place that ignore the historical and contemporary realities of the city’s African American population.

Black Hawk And The War Of 1832: Removal In The North, John Bowes

John P. Bowes

In 1804, a delegation of five Sauk leaders signed a treaty with the U.S. government ceding all of the tribe's lands east of the Mississippi River. Although the treaty was not immediately enforced by the United States, the situation would change in 1822. That summer, an influx of white miners arrived in northwestern Illinois and the southwestern part of Michigan Territory to extract lead from the profitable mines of the region. The trickle of settlers soon turned into a flood: By 1829, thousands of white settlers had moved into the region and settled on Sauk lands. The following year, Congress …

Gospel Tracks Through Texas: The Mission Of Chapel Car Good Will (Book Review), Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

Review of the book "Gospel Tracks Through Texas: The Mission of Chapel Car Good Will", by Wilma Rugh Taylor. Texas A&M University Press, 2005.

Founding Corporate Power In Early National Philadelphia, Andrew Schocket

Andrew M Schocket

During its first heady decades, the United States promised to become a fully democratic society with unprecedented liberty and opportunity. Yet, as political rights spread, a rising elite gained control over the sources of prosperity by means of the institution that has since come to symbolize capitalist America—the corporation. In this study, Andrew M. Schocket analyzes the establishment, growth, and operations of both commercial and municipal corporations in the nation’s premier city, Philadelphia. From the 1780s through the 1820s, members of Philadelphia’s privileged class formed corporations in order to consolidate their capital and political influence. By controlling regional transportation networks …

How Did The March On Washington Movement's Critique Of American Democracy In The 1940s Awaken African American Women To The Problem Of Jane Crow?, Cynthia Taylor

Cynthia Taylor

A Brief History Of Oyster Aquaculture In Rhode Island, Michael A. Rice

Michael A Rice

No abstract provided.

Method And Memory In The Midwestern ‘Lincoln Inquiry’: Oral Testimony And Abraham Lincoln Studies, 1865-1938, Keith A. Erekson

Keith A Erekson

This article reviews the efforts from the 1880s through the 1930s to collect and examine oral histories with Abraham Lincoln's Indiana neighbors.

Lincoln And The Constitutional Dilemma Of Emancipation, Edna Greene Medford

Edna Greene Medford

On the afternoon of January 1,1863, following nearly two years of bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln set in motion events that would reconnect the detached cord of Union and that would begin to reconcile the nation's practices to its avowed democratic principles.

Libraries In Public Before The Age Of Public Libraries: Interpreting The Furnishings And Design Of Athenaeums And Other ‘Social Libraries,’ 1800-1860, Adam Arenson

Adam Arenson

Before public libraries became common in the United States, both elite and striving men sought out social libraries to read business newspapers, attend lectures, appreciate art and good company, and generally learn or relish in respectability. For single male clerks living in rented rooms, the library served as a crucial "third place," away from home and work, where sociability and education could flourish. This chapter describes how elements of the private library, the parlor, and the bookstore informed the furnishing and design of the social library. It reveals how the spaces were intended to be utilized--and what legacies remained for …

“A Bridge Of Communication: Spaniards And Ottoman Sephardic Jews In The City Of New York (1880-1950)", Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.