scholarly journals Documentary Radio and the Radical Origins of Public History

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Left ◽  
The United States ◽  
Academic History ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Social Views ◽  
Contemporary Practice

The origin story of public history in the United States dates this profession, practice, and field of study back to the social movements and social/cultural turn of academic history of the 1960s and 70s, directly tying the emergence of professional public history to the political ethos of the New Left. However, exploring earlier efforts in professional public-facing historical work reveals the formative influence of the Old Left on the various fields that would come to fall under the purview of public history. This article traces that connection specifically through the Radio Research Project (RRP), a large-scale series of history-oriented programs produced by the Library of Congress beginning in 1941 that were designed to educate Americans in US history, to encourage citizens to embrace civic ideals such as cultural and political democracy, and to thwart the spread of fascism. Disconnecting the rise of public history from its perceived origins in the New Left through exploring programs like the RRP not only reveals a longer history of the profession, but also challenges accepted interpretations of the types of political and social views that provide the historical foundation of contemporary practice.

Labor History and Public History: Introduction

2009 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Miller Klubock ◽  
Paulo Fontes
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social History ◽  
Public History ◽  
Labor History ◽  
New Left ◽  
The United States ◽  
Working Class History ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Labor history and public history have had a long relationship in the United States, as James Green argues in Taking History to Heart, dating back to Progressive-era historians like Mary Ritter and Charles A. Beard. Labor historians like Phillip Foner, who identified with the “Old Left,” made labor history public history through ties to labor organizations and the Communist Party. Then, during the 1960s, historians identified with the “New Left” and inspired by E.P. Thompson, worked to extend social history and working-class history “from the bottom up” beyond the confines of the academy, even as they shifted their focus from the institutional histories of unions and political parties, to make the history of “ordinary people” and “everyday life” public history. The organization of history workshops and the proliferation of oral history projects reflect the ways in which historians of the working class made their practices public history in new ways during the 1960s and 1970s while expanding the sphere of both “the public” and “labor” to include histories of women, gender and patriarchy, and ethnic and racial minorities.

Introduction

Stirrings ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Lana Dee Povitz
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
New Left ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Control ◽  
Female Leaders ◽  
Food Activism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

Using the conceptual lens of terroir, this chapter provides an overview of hunger and poverty in the United States, starting with the urban liberalism of the 1960s and tracing the onset of austerity politics from mid-1970s through the early 2000s. It shows how New York City food activism was connected to an array of apparently unrelated social movements, including American Communism, community control, the countercultural New Left, feminism, Black Power, and AIDS activism. As governments reduced spending on social programs, leaders from these movements formed nonprofit organizations geared toward providing services, such as emergency meals and low-cost groceries. This chapter offers an overview of why and how service provision came to absorb the attention of late-twentieth century activists and shows how nonprofit kitchens and offices became sites of mentorship. As charismatic, overwhelmingly female leaders passed on values and strategies forged in earlier eras, they enacted activist genealogies that helped sustain political involvement over decades. Powerful interpersonal bonds and people’s own sense of being transformed by their activism illuminate the underappreciated role of emotion in the history of left-progressive movements.

Divided We Stand: Aspects of Archaeology and Information

1983 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Colin Renfrew
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Social Archaeology ◽  
Growth Area ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Archaeology

The role of the New Archaeology of the 1960s is recognized as decisive in the history of archaeology: an awakening from the “long sleep of archaeological theory” from about 1880 to 1960. But at the same time, limitations in the New Archaeology are responsible for corresponding defects in the present scene. The first of these is the lack of clear policy for the handling and especially the publication of data. It is argued that the outstanding defect of Cultural Resource Management, especially in the United States, is the failure to promote a clear policy that all survey work and all excavations should be adequately published. Accompanying this is the inadequate provision for the effective retrieval, at a national level, of the information which does emerge from CRM projects. The responsibility for this lies at the door of the academic archaeologists.The second defect is the failure to recognize that the New Archaeology primarily offered new and interesting problems, not ready solutions. The widespread misconception that processual archaeology has become “normal science” is partly responsible for the lack of steam in the current theoretical scene in the United States. Some alternative approaches are indicated, and it is suggested that cognitive archaeology may, in the 1980s and 1990s, take its place alongside the social archaeology of the past two decades as a significant growth area.

scholarly journals THE ELUSIVE SOVEREIGN: NEW INTELLECTUAL AND SOCIAL HISTORIES OF CAPITALISM

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEFFREY SKLANSKY
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Property Regimes

Intellectual history in the United States has long borne a peculiarly close kinship to social history. The twin fields rose together a century ago in a filial revolt against the cloistered, conservative study of political institutions. Sharing a progressive interest in social thought and social reform, they joined in the self-styled “social and intellectual history” of the interwar decades. After mid-century, however, they moved in divergent directions. Many social historians adopted the quantitative methods of the social sciences, documenting the diverse experiences of workers, women, immigrants, slaves, native peoples, and others often marginalized in the textual record as well as the property regimes, modes of production, patterns of inheritance and mobility, and large-scale demographic and environmental forces that governed their lives. Intellectual historians tended to favor the qualitative evidence gleaned from the more cohesive letters and libraries of traditional elites, specializing in close readings of the intricate discursive, aesthetic, and spiritual templates of social experience found in religion, science, philosophy, political theory, and art and literature. Both subdisciplines had come into parallel crises by the 1980s, chastened by postmodern attacks on “master narratives” of any kind, whether idealist or materialist. In the decades since, social historians have sought a more nuanced consideration of thought and culture, while intellectual historians have at once broadened the range of their subjects and sources and limited more carefully the claims they make for them.

scholarly journals The relationship between mothers’ and their daughters’ family size emerged in the United States during the 19th century

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Pink ◽  
Tobias Ebert ◽  
Jana Berkessel ◽  
Thorsteinn Jónsson
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intergenerational Continuity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Considerable Doubt

For more than a century, a key question of the social sciences has been whether daughters’ family sizes relate to their mothers’ family sizes. Contemporary evidence confirms that, in developed countries, women from larger families indeed tend to have more children themselves. There is considerable doubt, however, whether intergenerational continuity in childbearing constitutes a universal feature of human societies. Based on a large-scale web-harvested collection of online memorials, we show that intergenerational continuity in childbearing in the U.S. emerged only in the first half of the 19th century, paralleling the country’s marked fertility decline. Furthermore, we show that statewide differences in intergenerational continuity in childbearing coincide with statewide differences in abortion laws. This suggests that control over individual fertility was a major driver of the emergence of intergenerational continuity in childbearing. This finding suggests that, although intergenerational continuity in childbearing has appeared only relatively recently in the history of humankind, it will eventually become relevant worldwide.

Globalization

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-44
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Abu-Rabiʽ
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Third World War

Neoliberalism, as a global system, is a new war in theconquest of territory. The end of the Third World War, orCold War, certainly does not mean that the world hasovercome bipolarity and rediscovered stability under thedomination of the victor. Whereas there was a defeatedside (the socialist camp), it is difficult to identify the winningside. The United States? The European Union?Japan? Or all three? ... Thanks to computers, the financialmarkets, fiom the trading floor and according to theirwhims, impose their laws and precepts on the planet.Globalization is nothing more than the totalitarian extensionof their logic to every aspect of life. The UnitedStates, formerly the ruler of the economy, is now governed- tele-governed - by the very dynamic of financialpower: commercial free trade. And this logic has madeuse of the porosity produced by the development oftelecommunications to take over every aspect of activityin the social spectrum. The result is an all-out war.'In the 1950s and the 1960s, a phase in the history [of theThird World] that the supporters of globalization wish tomarginalize and assassinate, culture was in fact made upof two kinds: imperialisthegemonic culture and liberationisthationalistculture. Those influenced by the ideologyof globalization desire to create a new genre of culture:the culture of opening and renewal and that of withdrawaland stagnation. - Muhammad 'Abid al Jiibiri ...

Metaphor of Cigarettes: Feminism in Kate Chopin’s An Egyptian Cigarette

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 3479-3484
Author(s):  
Zhao Xin
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Kate Chopin ◽  
Feminist Literature ◽  
New Women ◽  
The Social ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Cultural Connotations

Objectives: Kate Chopin is regarded as one of the pioneers of the feminist literature in the United States. Her works mainly express her caring for women. Since the 1960s, the western academic circle has set off a long overdue upsurge in the study of Kate Chopin and her works, repositioning and giving Chopin a classic status in the history of American literature.This paper aims to analyze the revival and awakening of the heroine’s self-consciousness and reveal the inner world of a “new woman” at the turn of the century through the heroine’s behavior of taking the initiative to smoke and eventually giving up.Cigarettes, which appear repeatedly in this short novel with symbolic meanings, have a special metaphorical function. Through analyzing the social and historical environment of the emergence of “new women” in American society and the “new women” in An Egyptian Cigarette, this paper attempts to explore the multiple political and cultural connotations reflected by cigarettes and reveal Chopin’s feminist consciousness through the novella.

Why Diamonds Really are a Girl's Best Friend: Another American Narrative

Daedalus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100
Author(s):  
Linda K. Kerber
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Domestic Relations ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
American Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

The old law of domestic relations and the system known as coverture have shaped marriage practices in the United States and have limited women's membership in the constitutional community. This system of law predates the Revolution, but it lingers in U.S. legal tradition even today. After describing coverture and the old law of domestic relations, this essay considers how the received narrative of women's place in U.S. history often obscures the story of women's and men's efforts to overthrow this oppressive regime, and also the story of the continuing efforts of men and some women to stabilize and protect it. The essay also questions the paradoxes built into American law: for example, how do we reconcile the strictures of coverture with the founders' care in defining rights-holders as “persons” rather than “men”? Citing a number of court cases from the early days of the republic to the present, the essay describes the 1960s and 1970s shift in legal interpretation of women's rights and obligations. However, recent developments – in abortion laws, for example – invite inquiry as to how full the change is that we have accomplished. The history of coverture and the way it affects legal, political, and cultural practice today is another American narrative that needs to be better understood.

Our Rightful Place

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry L. Birdwhistell ◽  
Deirdre A. Scaggs
Keyword(s):  
Women Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Of Kentucky ◽  
Campus Environment ◽  
Rightful Place ◽  
Women's Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Since women first entered the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1880 they have sought, demanded, and struggled for equality within the university. The period between 1880 and 1945 at UK witnessed women’s suffrage, two world wars, and an economic depression. It was during this time that women at UK worked to take their rightful place in the university’s life prior to the modern women’s movement of the 1960s and beyond. The history of women at UK is not about women triumphant, and it remains an untidy story. After pushing for admission into a male-centric campus environment, women created women’s spaces, women’s organizations, and a women’s culture often patterned on those of men. At times, it seemed that a goal was to create a woman’s college within the larger university. However, coeducation meant that women, by necessity, competed with men academically while still navigating the evolving social norms of relationships between the sexes. Both of those paths created opportunities, challenges, and problems for women students and faculty. By taking a more women-centric view of the campus, this study shows more clearly the impact that women had over time on the culture and environment. It also allows a comparison, and perhaps a contrast, of the experiences of UK women with other public universities across the United States.

The National Data Center and the Rise of the Data Double

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-636
Author(s):  
Dan Bouk
Keyword(s):  
Life Insurance ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
National Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Economy

A mid-1960s proposal to create a National Data Center has long been recognized as a turning point in the history of privacy and surveillance. This article shows that the story of the center also demonstrates how bureaucrats and researchers interested in managing the American economy came to value personal data stored as “data doubles,” especially the cards and files generated to represent individuals within the Social Security bureaucracy. The article argues that the United States welfare state, modeled after corporate life insurance, created vast databanks of data doubles that later became attractive to economic researchers and government planners. This story can be understood as helping to usher in our present age of personal data, one in which data doubles have become not only commodities, but the basis for a new capitalism. This essay is part of a special issue entitled Histories of Data and the Database edited by Soraya de Chadarevian and Theodore M. Porter.

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