Category: History

Guest post by Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. Pop quiz: Who are Pamela Beckham and Lisa Harris, and why should you know them? Second question: What industry has been, historically, the most male dominated? Admittedly, that’s a hard one: there are so many candidates. But I’m a historian, so I’ll venture an answer: the railroad industry. May…

Guest post by Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. Pop quiz: Who are Pamela Beckham and Lisa Harris, and why should you know them? Second question: What industry has been, historically, the most male dominated? Admittedly, that’s a hard one: there are so many candidates. But I’m a historian, so I’ll venture an answer: the railroad industry. May…

Guest post by David Hochfelder During the Civil War, the War Department operated a U.S. Military Telegraph (USMT) network that handled 6.5 million messages between Washington, D.C., and commanders in the field. At its peak in 1865, the USMT managed 8,000 miles of military lines it had built and another 5,000 miles of commercial lines…

Guest post by Alicia Aldrete As the wife, research assistant, and sometimes coauthor of an ancient historian who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, I had expected to spend many hours in libraries, wandering through foreign museums, and climbing around ancient sites. However, I had not foreseen large groups of weapon-wielding students in our…

News and Notes Melissa Block of NPR’s All Things Considered interviews Daniel Webster, co-author of Reducing Gun Violence in America, about the wide variation in gun laws from state to state, and how those laws correspond to gun violence. Ron Coddington, author of African American Faces of the Civil War, is interviewed on The Kojo Nnamdi…

News and Notes Melissa Block of NPR’s All Things Considered interviews Daniel Webster, co-author of Reducing Gun Violence in America, about the wide variation in gun laws from state to state, and how those laws correspond to gun violence. Ron Coddington, author of African American Faces of the Civil War, is interviewed on The Kojo Nnamdi…

Guest post by Daniel Kilbride I suppose that every historian approaches a research subject, even a new one about which he or she might know very little, with certain expectations. Some of us do much more: several years ago, a young historian shocked me with his very ambitious itinerary for research, writing, and publication. When…

News and Notes Annette Lanjouw, co-author of Mountain Gorillas: Biology, Conservation, and Coexistence, was interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday during the SciFri Book Club about Dian Fossey’s Gorillas in the Mist. Daniel Webster, co-editor of Reducing Gun Violence in American: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis, was interviewed on Annapolis radio station WRNR 103.1. Hot…

guest post by Alexandra M. Lord In 1937, the United States Public Health Service (PHS) took its most daring step forward to date. In a short pamphlet aimed at all Americans, the nation’s foremost public health organization gravely informed readers that “the use of the rubber (condom) during sexual intercourse . . . protects both…

With the holidays behind us and the dust of year-end celebrations settled, the JHU Press, as is the case with many of you faithful blog readers, is hitting the road! That's right, it's annual-meeting-mania and we'll be showcasing new publications and backlist favorites from coast-to-coast for the next week and a half. Tomorrow kicks off for…