The Best American History Essays 2007

289 Pages·2007·0.45 MB·English

by  Jacqueline Jones (eds.)

The Best American History Essays 2007

The Best American History Essays 2007
Edited by
Jacqueline Jones
for the
Organization of American Historians
palgrave
macmilan
THE BEST AMERICAN HISTORY ESSAYS 2007
© Organization of American Historians, 2007.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-7659-8
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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ISBN 978-1-4039-7660-4 ISBN 978-1-137-06439-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-06439-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The best American history essays 2007/ edited by jacqueline jones for
the Organization of American Historians.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. United States-History. 2. American essays. 3. United
States-Historiography. I. jones, jacqueline, 1948-11. Organization of
American Historians.
E178.6.B53 2007
973-dc22 2006050719
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: April 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to digital printing in 2007.
Contents
List of Illustrations Vll
Acknowledgments IX
Introduction 1
Jacqueline Jones
Chapter 1 From Captives to Slaves: Commodifying Indian
Women in the Borderlands 13
Juliana Barr
From The Journal of American History
Chapter 2 "Meddling with Emancipation:" Baptists,
Authority, and the Rift over Slavery in
the Upper South 47
Monica Najar
From The Journal of the Early Republic
Chapter 3 The Afterlives of Lewis and Clark 71
Stephen Aron
From Southern California Quarterly
Chapter 4 Revisiting Nashoba: Slavery, Utopia, and
Frances Wright in America, 1818-1826 89
Gail Bederman
From American Literary History
Chapter 5 Outlawing "Coolies": Race, Nation, and
Empire in the Age of Emancipation 111
Moon-Ho Jung
From American Quarterly
palgrave
Chapter 6 "The Dread Void of Uncertainty": Naming the
Dead in the American Civil War 135
macmilDlarenw Gilpin Faust
From Southern Cultures
VI Contents
Chapter 7 Diplomatic Wives: The Politics of Domesticity and
the "Social Game" in the U.S. Foreign Service,
1905-1941 155
Molly M. Wood
From The Journal of Women's History
Chapter 8 The Flying Machine in the Garden: Parks and
Airports, 1918-1938 175
Janet R. Daly Bednarek
From Technology and Culture
Chapter 9 Miscegenation and Competing Definitions of Race in
Twentieth-Century Louisiana 199
Michelle Brattain
From The Journal of Southern History
Chapter 10 The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political
Uses of the Past 235
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
From The Journal of American History
Other Articles Nominated for the 2007 Competition 273
Index 275
List of Illustrations
1.1 Major Indian, Spanish, and French settlements in
Spanish Texas, French Louisiana, Apacherfa,
Comancherfa, and the territories of Caddo and
Witchita peoples. 15
1.2 Lipan Apache Indians North of the Rio Grande,
ca. 1834-1836. 27
3.1 Lewis and Clark plush toy. 73
3.2 Portrait of Meriwether Lewis. 77
3.3 Portrait of William Clark. 79
4.1 Frances Wright. 91
5.1 The inhumanity of the "coolie" trade. 121
5.2 Dehumanized "coolies." 121
6.1 On the battlefield of Antietam. 137
6.2 Civil War dead at the Battle of Antietam. 141
6.3 Clara Barton. 142
6.4 Confederate General Robert E. Lee and
Union General Joseph Hooker. 144
6.5 Dedication ceremony at the Andersonville
National Cemetery, 1865. 150
8.1 Charles A. Lindbergh, 1925. 179
8.2 Washington-Hoover Airport, 1932. 180
9.1 Isaac and Rosa, emancipated slave children, ca. 1863. 205
9.2 Portrait of Governor Luther Egbert Hall and
judges of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, ca. 1913. 207
10.1 Protesters at the 1963 Civil Rights March
on Washington, DC. 250
10.2 Civil Rights leaders and marchers being
photographed at the 1963 Civil Rights
March on Washington, DC. 250

Acknowledgments
The 2007 edition of the Best American History Essays was prepared by its
editor, Jacqueline Jones, and the hardworking individuals who comprised
the editorial board: Anthony J. Badger, John M. Belohlavek, Ellen Carol
DuBois, Eric Foner, Sharon Harley, M. Ruth Kelly, John Saillant, and Elliott
West. We would like to thank them for their efforts in selecting the ten arti
cles from the hundreds of journals and magazines they scoured looking for
the best American history published between the summers of 2005
and 2006. In addition, we want to acknowledge and thank those involved
in producing the inaugural edition of the Best American History Essays in
2006. Under the careful editorship of Joyce Appleby, University of
California, Los Angeles professor emerita, and past president of the
Organization of American Historians (OAH), the following American
historians invested their time and energy to assemble the 2006 volume:
Anthony J. Badger, John Belohlavek, Flannery Burke, David Goldfield,
M. Ruth Kelly, Jill Lepore, John Saillant, George Sanchez, and Gordon Wood.
We would also like to thank the following staff at the Organization of
American Historians executive office, whose hard work behind the scenes
helped bring these editions to print: Kevin Byrne, Amanda Dollar, Keith
Eberly, Susan Ferentinos, Terry Govan, Jason Groth, Kara Hamm, Phillip
Guerty, Matthew Laird, Susanna Robbins, Amy Stark, and Annette
Wind horn. We must also thank OAH Publications Director Michael Regoli
and former OAH Deputy Director John Dichtl.
Finally, we want to thank Brendan O'Malley who first brought the idea
of a Best American History Essays volume to OAH more than three years
ago. We also appreciate the efforts of our colleagues at Palgrave Macmillan,
especially editor Alessandra Bastagli, Erin Ivy, and Emily Leithauser, who
made these volumes possible.
-Lee W. Formwalt
Executive Director, Organization of American Historians