Cultural History Commons^™

Interview With James Myers, March 28 & 31, 2011, James P. Myers Jr., Brad R. Miller

Oral Histories

James Myers was interviewed on March 28 & 31, 2011 by Brad Miller about his childhood, collegiate years and teaching at Gettysburg College. He also discussed Carl Arnold Hanson's presidency, the political unrest during that time, and how the college has changed during his time here.

Length of Interview: 103 minutes

Course Information:

• Course Title: HIST 300: Historical Method
• Academic Term: Spring 2011
• Course Instructor: Dr. Michael Birkner '72

Collection Note: This oral history was selected from the Oral History Collection maintained by Special Collections & College Archives. Transcripts are available for browsing in the Special Collections Reading Room, 4 …

The Grizzly, February 24, 2011, Katie Callahan, Brett Cohen, Chris Capone, Allison Nichols, Lisa Jobe, Hillary Anderson, Eva Bramesco, Katie Haldeman, Traci Johnson, Jessica Orbon, Sarah Bollert, James Shelton, Carly Siegler, Kyu Chul Shin, Pamela Horn, Shane Eachus, Michael Schmidt

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Greek Recruitment Week Underway • Collegiate Learning Assessment for Graduating Students • Kwesi Koomson Talks About Heritage Academy in Ghana • Sexy Talk with a Twist of Love and Revolution • Birthright Provides Unique Experience • The Women of Whitians Honor Society Make Moves • WeCan Attempts to Bring Change to UC Dining Services • Relay for Life Recruits for a Strong Turnout • Internship Profile: Chris Michael • Positive Changes Made to SPINT • Diversity Column: Language of Race • Opinions: Egypt President Falls, Other Countries Hopeful • Men's Basketball Season Ends on Sour Note • Men's Club Soccer …

Montgomery: The Murals In The Dome, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

A broad sweeping portico looms behind the gay couple riding horses on a summer's afternoon. The man wears a brown coat and tall black top hat. The woman dresses in the finery of the turn-of-the-century. A hunting dog stands at attention as the horses stride across the plantation's spacious lawn. Back on the porch, a black "mammy" figure watches over a young girl. [excerpt]

The Grizzly, February 17, 2011, Katie Callahan, Allison Nichols, Katie Haldeman, Jessica Long, Lisa Jobe, Briana Brukilacchio, Sarah Bollert, Colin Hart, Jessica Orbon, Kyu Chul Shin, Sara Hourwitz, Shane Eachus, Nick Pane

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Over 45 Businesses Visit Career Fair • Alcohol Incidents on Campus Raise Concern for Administration • Dance Organizations Promise Exciting Spring Performances • UITA to Bring W. J. T. Mitchell to Campus Today • Urbano Cheers and Sings Her Way Through Senior Year • Valentine's Day: Memories of Puppies and Passing Out • "To Write Love on Her Arms" Comes to Ursinus • Internship Profile: Jordan Oliver • Opinions: Like-a-Little Provides a Fun, Flirtatious Environment; Like-a-Little Could be Detrimental to Ursinus; Snow and Ice Cause Problems in Ursinus Parking Lots • UC Baseball Looks to Bounce Back in Season • …

Montgomery: Jeff Davis' Seal Of Solomon, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Set into the marble steps of Alabama's Capitol building is a brass star. Gleaming against the white stone, the star stands at the top of the stairs on the Capitol's west face. The star reads, "Placed by Sophie Bibb Chapter Daughters of the Confederacy on the spot where Jefferson Davis stood when inaugurated President of C.S.A. Feb. 16. 1861." [excerpt]

Why It's Interpretive: Bid 'Em In, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Browsing the provocative blog "Jubilo! The Emancipation Century" recently, I came upon a post featuring a curious YouTube video.

So why did Bid 'Em In speak so deeply to me? I think it's because it places you in the shoes of the 15 year old slave woman being auctioned. It's not an intellectual investigation of slavery. It's not an historical narrative written after the fact of a particular event. It's visceral. [excerpt]

The Grizzly, February 10, 2011, Katie Callahan, Traci Johnson, Allison Nichols, Michael Delaney, Lisa Jobe, Joshua C. Walsh, Sarah Bollert, Katie Haldeman, James Shelton, Kyu Chul Shin, Jason K. Mullins, Nick Pane, Shane Eachus

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Bonners Give Insight on Organization • Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity to Participate in Spring Intake • Future UC President Dr. Bobby Fong Receives National Award • Ursinus College Plays Host to W. R. Crigler • GRE Makeover and Helpful Hints to Ace the Test • Calvin Levels Performs One Man Show in the Blackbox • New Program Brings Students and Professors Closer • Internship Profile: Matt Angle • Opinion: UC Town Hall Meeting Proved a Bit Disappointing; Letter to a Writer; A Multicultural Ursinus Campus on the Way; Upheaval in the Middle East: Why Students Should Care • Murren Adds …

Lee Chapel: Lost Cause Artifact And Culture Shock, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I had the privilege to accompany a group of undergraduate students recently on a whirlwind tour of the Wilderness, Richmond and Appomattox. Our tour took us along the I-81 corridor on the way back to Gettysburg, so why not stop in Lexington for a Civil War two-fer. [excerpt]

The Grizzly, February 4, 2011, Katie Callahan, Allison Nichols, Liz Kilmer, Lisa Jobe, Stephen Harris, Kristen Wampole, Eva Bramesco, Sara Hourwitz, Joshua C. Walsh, Sarah Bollert, Sara Sherr, James Shelton, Kyu Chul Shin, Carly Siegler, Jessica Orbon

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Hate Crime Discussed During Meeting • "What is Love" Course has Students Talking • Dolce Suono Ensemble Performs at Ursinus • Community Survey Results • UC-Rising Debuts • Presenting the Best and Worst of Ursinus College • Campus Activities Board Packs Semester with Great Fun • First African-American Graduate to be Honored • Internship Profile: Maria Linder • Winter Birthright Trip Proves to be Worthwhile • Recent Winter Weather is Anything But a Wanted Wonderland • Opinions: President Obama Attempts to Reach out to U.S. • UC Basketball Seniors Approaching End of Season

"And You May Ask Yourself: Am I Right? Am I Wrong?", John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

This blogging endeavour is dangerous. Blogging, I believe, should be a personal medium, where you wear your heart on your sleeve and let the real "you" hang out. That's scary. [excerpt]

Little Founders On The Small Screen: Interpreting A Multicultural American Revolution For Children’S Television, Andrew M. Schocket

History Faculty Publications

From 2002 to 2004, the children’s animated series Liberty’s Kids aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the United States’ public television network. It runs over forty half-hour episodes and features a stellar cast, including such celebrities as Walter Cronkite, Michael Douglas, Yolanda King, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Neeson, and Annette Bening. Television critics generally loved it, and there are now college students who can trace their interest in the American Revolution to having watched this series when they were children. At the turn of the twenty-first century, it is the most extended and in-depth encounter with …

The Grizzly, January 27, 2011, Katie Callahan, Traci Johnson, Sarah Bollert, Jessica Long, Lisa Jobe, Kristen Wampole, Megan Ormsby, Jarod Groome, Katie Haldeman, Fran Macera, Kyu Chul Shin, Jason K. Mullins, Elizabeth Burns, Christopher Michael

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Bonner Leaders Host Hunger Banquet • UC Alumnus Discusses Alternative Careers in Science • Students Find Internships While Studying Abroad • Berman Museum Opens Two New Exhibitions • MLK Celebrations • Student Experiences Australian Flood • Students Travel to Spain for New Experiences • Internship Profile: Ananda Holton • Diversity Through Monologues • Opinion: Scheduling Classes is Too Difficult; Tragedy in Arizona: The Work of a Madman; Snapshots of London From my Time Studying Abroad • Swimming Training Trip to Florida Proves Rewarding

The Devil Was The First Scab : Working-Class Spirituality And Union Organization In Marion County, West Virginia 1918-1927, Chelsie C. Fitzwater

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

A community-focused study of Marion County, West Virginia provides a unique opportunity to explore unionization efforts in central Appalachia. This thesis examines the interplay between working-class spirituality, unionism, and capitalism at the height of organized labor campaigns in the Fairmont Field between 1918 and 1927. The region reflects national and local trends in trade unionism as well as shifts in religious attitudes between conservative Fundamentalist evangelists and progressive Social Gospel ministers. Marion County differs from other Appalachian coalfields because local industrialists rather than absentee developers spearheaded the region’s economic development while labor leaders from outside of the state led unionization …

Violence, Statecraft, And Statehood In The Early Republic : The State Of Franklin, 1784–1788, Kevin T. Barksdale

History Faculty Research

In December 1784, a small contingent of upper Tennessee Valley political leaders met in Washington County, North Carolina's rustic courthouse to discuss the uncertain postrevolutionary political climate that they believed threatened their regional political hegemony, prosperity and families. The Jonesboro delegates fatefully decided that their backcountry communities could no longer remain part of their parent state and that North Carolina's westernmost counties (at the time Washington, Sullivan and Greene counties) must unite and form America's fourteenth state.

Review Of Seldom Seen: A Journey Into The Great Plains By Patrick Dobson, Geitner Simmons

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The Great Plains often are dismissed as ho-hum fly-over country lacking in significance or appeal. But in the skillfully written narrative of Seldom Seen, Patrick Dobson describes how he finds the Plains a source of emotional sustenance and, ultimately, rejuvenation. Seldom Seen is the story of the author's trek, largely by foot, from Kansas City, Missouri, to Helena, Montana. Along the way Dobson-- a 32-year old blue-collar worker seeking relief from a variety of intense personal frustrations-meets a long string of open-hearted if often dirt-poor souls and comes to find hope in what he'd largely considered a "mean and …

The American Imprint On Alberta Politics, Nelson Wiseman

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Characteristics assigned to America's classical liberal ideology-rugged individualism, market capitalism, egalitarianism in the sense of equality of opportunity, and fierce hostility toward centralized federalism and socialismare particularly appropriate for fathoming Alberta's political culture. In this article, I contend that Alberta's early American settlers were pivotal in shaping Alberta's political culture and that Albertans have demonstrated a particular affinity for American political ideas and movements. Alberta came to resemble the liberal society in Tocqueville's Democracy in America: high status was accorded the selfmade man, laissez-faire defined the economic order, and a multiplicity of religious sects competed in the market for …

Review Of Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, And Healing By Jo-Ann Episkenew, Keavy Martin

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Metis scholar and activist Jo-Ann Episkenew examines the potential of literature to assist Canadian Indigenous communities in healing from the impacts of colonial government policy in this, her first scholarly monograph. While the discourse of "healing" has been a central feature of both bureaucratic and academic discussions of Indigenous issues since the 1990s, Episkenew's study appears at a time when the detrimental effects of policies like the residential school system are again gaining public attention as Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission gets underway. The book contains a useful overview of the government interventions that have impinged upon Indigenous peoples in …

Review Of Replenishing The Earth: The Settler Revolution And The Rise Of The Anglo-World, 1783-1939 By James Belich, Jon Lauck

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

During the early modern era, the great powers of the world enjoyed a rough parity of strength. But in the nineteenth century, during a great "divergence," the Anglo-American world gained ground over the others. Some historians have attributed this to inherent advantages of Anglo-Saxon culture, others to the natural resources of the Anglo world, and others to its growth-promoting institutions. James Belich believes historians must also consider another factor, what he calls the Anglo-American "Settler Revolution" of the nineteenth century.

Other European powers, Belich argues, did not have the staying power of the Anglo-American world. The Dutch, for example, had …

Review Of Gateway To The Northern Plains: Railroads And The Birth Of Fargo And Moorhead By Carroll Engelhardt, Kimberly K. Porter

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

One worries about the editorial staff at the University of Minnesota Press in determining to accept the manuscript for Gateway to the Northern Plains. You can almost see them scratching their heads, frustrated with the job of marketing a volume that could belong in every section of every bookstore and could find an appropriate home on the shelf of any scholar of the American experience. Indeed, that is the delightful challenge of Carroll Engelhardt's labor of love. Engelhardt, an emeritus professor of history at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, clearly devoted years of research and writing to the preparation of …

Review Of First Nations, First Thoughts: The Impact Of Indigenous Thought In Canada Edited By Annis May Timpson, Priscilla Settee

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This timely collection offers perceptive, thought-provoking perspectives on contemporary issues Indigenous communities face. Privatization, governance, language preservation, museums, public policy, and official knowledge are some of the topics the book tackles. Written by a range of seasoned and emerging scholars, First Nations, First Thoughts is organized into five subject areas (each containing two or three papers): challenging dominant discourses; oral histories; cultural representation; governance; and political self-determination. The title is a clever response to Thomas Flanagan's First Nations? Second Thoughts (2000). One of the articles rebuts the content of this infamous, rather anti-Indigenous-sovereignty book. Because Flanagan is consulted on issues …

Review Of Skylark Meets Meadowlark: Reimagining The Bird In British Romantic And Contemporary Native American Literature By Thomas C. Gannon, Frederick White

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Thomas Gannon's verve animates his investigation and contrast of avian images from British Romantic poets and Native American authors. In the introductory chapter, he provides a steadfast theoretical basis grounded in a syncretic psychological-ecotheory. In the next two chapters he meticulously constructs his view that the British Romantic poets' attempt to connect with nature, specifically birds, at the surface level seems accomplished but, with deeper pondering, falls far short of being convincing. Gannon exposes how western expression of nature cannot capture any essence of subject-subject, that is "I-Thou." The second and third chapters explore examples to show avian representation is …

Review Of White Mother To A Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, And The Removal Of Indigenous Children In The American West And Australia, 1880-1940 By Margaret D. Jacobs, Lynette Russell

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Comparative studies involving similar historical events in different locales have been neglected over the last few decades, in my opinion to the detriment of history. It is indeed gratifying to see this change with the publication recently of several important comparative works. Two that compare North America with Australia are Penelope Edmonds's outstanding Urbanizing Frontiers: Indigenous Peoples and Settlers in 19th-Century Pacific Rim Cities (2010) and Katherine Ellinghaus's Taking Assimilation to Heart: Marriages of White Women and Indigenous Men in Australia and the United States, 1887-1937 (2006). To this we can now add Margaret D. Jacobs's important White Mother to …

Review Of Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong By Paul Chaat Smith, Laura M. Furlan

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In his recent collection of essays, associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian Paul Chaat Smith argues for a reorientation of knowledge about Indian peoples. The essays, all previously published, are sometimes autobiographical, sometimes humorous, and range in topic from Ishi to the Alcatraz occupation. In "The Big Movie," for example, Smith takes on films that feature Indians, from the first moving picture made by Thomas Edison in 1894, Sioux Ghost Dance, to The Searchers, Last of the Mohicans, and Dances with Wolves. Indians, Smith writes, have become "a kind of national mascot." These …

Moneneheo And Naheverien Cheyenne And Mennonite Sewing Circles, Convergences And Conflicts, 1890-1970, Kimberly D. Schmidt

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Marie Gerber Petter was skeptical. Born in the Swiss Jura Mountains, she knew that one does not find water in high places. It was 1893 when Marie and her husband, Rodolphe Petter, came to North America for the express purpose of bringing Christianity to Native Americans. After studying English and visiting Mennonite churches in Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas to garner monetary support for their work among the Southern Cheyenne, they made the forty-mile journey from Darlington, Oklahoma Territory, to an area near present-day Hammon by covered wagon. She was in need of water. When she asked, the local Cheyenne chief, …

Review Of Art As Performance, Story As Criticism: Reflections On Native Literary Aesthetics By Craig S. Womack, Mark Rifkin

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Art as Performance, Story as Criticism is a grand experiment. In it, Womack plays with the possibilities of critical form as well as analytic content. One of the commonplaces of Native literary studies is that knowledge is made through story, so artistic production should count as a means of studying the world. Following this line of thought, Womack here blends story with more conventional scholarship, creating a multilayered counterpoint that conveys more the sense of an opening to a conversation than the self-enclosure that can emanate from thesis-driven arguments. In this vein, the pieces collected here-ranging from new short …

Review Of Our Boys: A Perfect Season On The Plains With The Smith Center Redmen By Joe Drape, John R. Wunder

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The best book on Great Plains sports is H. G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights (1990). That classic has spawned a critically acclaimed television series and numerous awards. FNL not only told the story of a football season at Odessa Permian High School in urban West Texas; it also asked and answered some very big questions that concerned high school athletic corruption, coaching pressures, cheerleader/ football player interaction, school integration, local community politics, treatment of players of color, Texas's new rules prohibiting playing with failing grades, pressures on teachers, drugs, player abuse, and on and on. It remains a beautifully written …

Review Of The Western Landscape In Cormac Mccarthy And Wallace Stegner: Myths Of The Frontier By Megan Riley Mcgilchrist, Harry F. Thompson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Megan Riley McGilchrist sees the Vietnam War and the cultural upheaval it represents as a watershed event in understanding how the western novel treats the theme of landscape. She constructs her analysis through the writings of Wallace Stegner and the western novels of Cormac McCarthy, the former retaining a belief in the innate goodness of the land and the latter rejecting the benevolence of the natural world. McGilchrist argues that, as the fulfillment of the frontier ethos, the Vietnam War-absent in Stegner but present in McCarthy-changed life in the mythimbued West. For McGilchrist, elements of the mythic West, both abhorrent …

Review Of The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army In The West, 1783-1900 By Robert Wooster, Mark R. Scherer

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Given the vast breadth and depth of American military historiography, well-organized and well-written narrative overviews of the field are always welcome. Robert Wooster's recently released The American Military Frontiers certainly fits that description. Wooster, a professor of history at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, and the author of four other books on western military history, synthesizes several generations of previous scholarship to support his most fundamental theme: that the Army served not only as the executor of nineteenth century national policy, but also as an important catalytic "shaper" of that policy. In its attention to the multiple roles played by …

Review Of Seeking Life Whole: Willa Cather And The Brewsters By Lucy Marks And David Porter, Kari A. Ronning

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Seeking Life Whole, eighth in Fairleigh Dickinson's series on Willa Cather, is a volume in two parts, with nine subdivisions, and excellent notes. Part 1 contains Lucy Marks's biographical account of the lives of expatriate painters Achsah Barlow Brewster and her husband Earl H. Brewster, and David Porter's biographical and critical account of the previously unknown relationship between the Brewsters and Willa Cather. The Brewsters went to Europe after their marriage in 1910 to dedicate themselves to painting, nature, study, and a simple, beautiful way of life; they attracted a remarkable range of friends. Their type has been satirized, …

Review Of Bleeding Borders: Race, Gender, And Violence In Pre-Civil War Kansas By Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel, Michael D. Pierson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Bleeding Kansas has long been an important topic for political historians exploring how it influenced Congress, presidential campaigns, and the coming of the Civil War. Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel's book uses the insights of recent social historians to add depth to this political narrative, thereby strengthening our understanding of how antebellum Kansas changed America.

Bleeding Borders begins with a chapter that positions Kansas as a frontier territory. Oertel's antebellum Kansans are divided by race, but not just between white and black. Starting her history in the 1820s, Oertel finds that "white settlers' perceptions of and interactions with Kansas Indians played a …