For years, native Hawaiians had fought with a modest degree of success to maintain their autonomy. But in 1893, white businessmen—sugar magnates and the like—had taken control by tossing out […]
Category: american history
Throwbacklist Thursday: The Story of the Smiths
Often overlooked in the literature written about American families, the Smiths of Western New York nonetheless have a claim over the Rockefellers and Adamses and all the other subjects of […]
200 Years of Illinois: Union Forever
In 1862, as the Civil War raged and a Confederate victory seemed quite possible, many of the tensions unleashed by the war found a stage in Pekin. There, on June 25, […]
Truly the Greatest
A boxing legend but a towering American cultural figure, Muhammad Ali lived a life beyond adjectives, indeed beyond superlatives, and that’s just what he set out to do. Tributes to […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: Steel Away
The Stone Age had its cavepeople and thyroidal mammals, the Bronze Age its Hoplites and long poems, the Iron Age its hillforts and bog mummies. The Steel Age seldom gets […]
Release Party: Cold War Games
Olympic advertising is in full swing. It is a good time to recall that, not long ago, an Olympic year meant far more than corporate tie-ins and moody video of winsome young […]
200 Years of Illinois: Near and Deere
Fleeing debt, John Deere made his way from Vermont to Illinois with a dream: to earn big money making tools. The blacksmith settled in the charmingly-named Grand Detour, Illinois, and […]
Q&A with Taste of the Nation author Camille Bégin
Camille Bégin is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Sensory Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. She answered some questions about her book Taste of […]
Sensing Chicago awarded by the Illinois State Historical Society
Sensing Chicago: Noisemakers, Strikebreakers, and Muckrakers by Adam Mack has been given an award for Superior Achievement by the Illinois State Historical Society. The awards committee noted, “This scholarly book […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: The Pitching Hour
For a boring sport, baseball sure produces a lot of interesting writing. Maybe because writers have a lot of time to think, take notes, nap, and so on waiting for […]
200 Years of Illinois: U.S. as in United States
“My family is American, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral.” April 27 marks the 194th anniversary of the birth of Ulysses S. Grant, victor […]
Bumper crop
What does America need? You probably have a long list. It might even include “a good five-cent cigar.” What does America NOT need? More corn. We’re swimming in corn. South America is […]