Society for US Intellectual History

Campbell F. Scribner on Hugo Drochon’s Elites and Democracy

2026-09-20T11:34:55Z

One of the first intellectual histories that I read in graduate school was Ben Alpers’s Dictators, Democracy, and American Public Culture (2003), which traces the cultural cachet of authoritarianism during Read more

The post Campbell F. Scribner on Hugo Drochon’s *Elites and Democracy* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Naida García Crespo on Michael Staudenmaier’s White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago

2026-09-13T12:20:45Z

Michael Staudenmaier’s White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago presents a fascinating historical analysis of how the Puerto Rican community in Chicago developed its conception of race and ethnicity Read more

The post Naida García Crespo on Michael Staudenmaier’s *White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Steven F. Lawson on Sharron Wilkins Conrad’s The Trinity: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Civil Rights in African American Memory

2026-09-06T04:39:05Z

The writing of history and the formulation of memory are both constructed. They differ in that historical interpretation depends on written and oral sources as well as material artifacts. The Read more

The post Steven F. Lawson on Sharron Wilkins Conrad’s *The Trinity: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Civil Rights in African American Memory* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

James Walvin on David Singerman’s Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar

2026-08-30T11:10:44Z

The history of sugar continues to exercise great curiosity among scholars. In large part, this stems from the centrality of different forms of sweetness in the history of human taste Read more

The post James Walvin on David Singerman’s *Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Christopher B. Bean on Kevin M. Burton’s Apocalyptic Abolitionism: How Millennialists Helped Abolish Slavery and Reform America

2026-08-23T12:04:46Z

With so many treatments addressing slavery in just the last two decades it is difficult to find one that does not read like déjà vu. That is not the case Read more

The post Christopher B. Bean on Kevin M. Burton’s *Apocalyptic Abolitionism: How Millennialists Helped Abolish Slavery and Reform America* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Priscila Dorella on Brian D. Behnken’s Brown and Blue: Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, and Civil Rights in the Southwest, 1935-2025

2026-08-16T12:30:27Z

“We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us.”
Anonymous (Chicano Movement)

Brian D. Behnken is Professor of History at Iowa State University, specializing in the history of Mexican Americans Read more

The post Priscila Dorella on Brian D. Behnken’s *Brown and Blue: Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, and Civil Rights in the Southwest, 1935-2025* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Andrew Hartman on Steven Hahn’s Illiberal America: A History

2026-08-09T12:12:54Z

The timing of Steven Hahn’s latest book, Illiberal America: A History, is no coincidence. Published in 2024, the same year Donald Trump was elected president a second time despite instigating Read more

The post Andrew Hartman on Steven Hahn’s *Illiberal America: A History* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Philadelphia Freedom

2026-08-10T01:01:14Z

Oh, Philadelphia freedom, shine on me, I love ya…
Philadelphia freedom, don’t you know that I love you?

Elton John/Bernie Taupin, “Philadelphia Freedom”

Just in time for the semiquincentennial (or Read more

The post Philadelphia Freedom first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Naida García-Crespo on Cotten Seiler’s White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure

2026-07-26T11:58:20Z

Cotten Seiler’s White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure offers a history of discourses both about race and human potential, and public spending in infrastructure throughout, mostly, the Read more

The post Naida García-Crespo on Cotten Seiler’s *White Care: The Impact of Race on American Infrastructure* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.

Jason Shaffer on Richard Bell’s The American Revolution and the Fate of the World

2026-07-19T12:18:23Z

On July 4th, 1837, the townspeople of Concord, Massachusetts first heard the lyrics of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” which was read and then sung (to the tune of the Read more

The post Jason Shaffer on Richard Bell’s *The American Revolution and the Fate of the World* first appeared on Society for US Intellectual History.