Nancy Lasselle’s Washington Novels
Lasselle’s 1850s novels were the first to examine the entanglements of society and politics—including lobbying—in Washington, DC.
Kitchenless Dreams
Escaping the drudgery of housekeeping via collective action became a feminist focus of utopian practitioners and theorists in the later nineteenth century.
Money, Murder, and Mrs. Clem
Nancy Clem was a Gilded Age con artist whose swindles eventually turned deadly. Her crimes would test the era’s assumptions about class, gender, and criminality.
The Irrigationist
Canadian-born George Chaffey was instrumental in bringing irrigation and the consequent development of the “agriburb” to California…and Australia…and Israel.
Lyndon B. Johnson’s Decision Speech: Annotated
United States President Lyndon B. Johnson’s televised announcement that he would not run for re-election shocked a nation divided by the Vietnam War.
Luna Park and the Amusement Park Boom
The fortunes of Coney Island have waxed and waned, but in the early twentieth century, its amusement parks became a major American export.
Feeding a City the Municipal Way
Between 1790 and 1860, New York City’s food markets were public, sustained by active government involvement. What happened?
The Ballad of Railroad Bill
The story of Morris Slater, aka Railroad Bill, prompts us to ask how the legend of the "American outlaw" changes when race is involved.
The 1970s Cow Mutilation Mystery
When ranchers began reporting incidents of mutilated cattle, the ensuing panic fed both conspiracy theories and a growing cynicism about the government.
The Importance of Newspapers for the Red Power Movement
In the 1960s and 1970s, activists and organizers used Indian Country newspapers to cultivate a pan-Indigenous identity through a poetics of resistance.