The March 2013
issue of the
Journal of American History is out. Subscribers may access full content online. Here are two articles that may be of particular interest:
Patronage and Protest in Kate Brown’s Washington
New laws and constitutional amendments dramatically altered African
Americans’ relationship to the federal government after the Civil War. Kate Masur
shows that unprecedented opportunities for federal employment opened to
African Americans at the same time. Her article follows a remarkable
woman named Kate Brown from her work as a restroom attendant in the U.S.
Capitol to her protest against discrimination on a local railroad to
her marriage and divorce. This history offers a human–scale perspective
on African Americans and Republican patronage in the Civil War era and
shows how access to government work shaped black life in Washington,
D.C., at a pivotal moment. It reveals something of the mechanics of
patronage: how African Americans mobilized their connections to
prominent whites, and to one another, to create opportunities for
advancement. It also allows us to see how public protest was woven into
an individual life preoccupied, as well, with making a living,
sustaining (and breaking) kinship ties, and creating a safe and
satisfying personal existence.
The Moment of Transition: State Officials, the Federal Government, and the Formation of American Immigration Policy
The Immigration Act of 1882 was the first general immigration
legislation at the national level with exclusion and deportation
clauses. By analyzing the act’s enduring reliance on state officials for
its implementation, Hidetaka Hirota, in the essay that won the 2012 Louis Pelzer Memorial Award,
demonstrates that the federalization of immigration control was a more
gradual and contingent process than historians have assumed. He also
argues that the roots of the almost–unlimited official power in
determining the excludability and deportability of aliens, which
characterized federal immigration control from the late nineteenth
century onward, lay in the administration of the 1882 act by state
officials in New York and Massachusetts.
Also in this issue:
"American Enlightenments: Continuity and Renewal," by Nathalie Caron and Naomi Wulf
"'Their blood shall not be shed in vain': American Evangelical Missionaries and the Search for God and Country in Post-World War II Asia," by Sarah Miller-Davenport
"The Cold War Romance of Religious Authenticity: Will Herberg, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Rise of the New Right," by K. Healan Gaston
And of course, the book reviews, which (time permitting) your loyal bloggers will scour for items of interest.
