David J. Silverman is an award-winning professor of history at George Washington University. He is the author of the new book, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America. Between the early seventeenth and late nineteenth centuries, indigenous people across North America revolutionized their lives with firearms. The implications of this intervention, however, are complex,… Read More
The Society for Historians of the Early American Republic invites submissions for the SHEAR Dissertation Prize. The Prize will be awarded to an exceptional dissertation pertaining to the history of North America from 1776 to 1861. Within that period, the dissertation may treat virtually any aspect of history, including political, social, cultural, or literary history. Dissertations successfully defended in… Read More
Over at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s blog, SHEAR members John L. Brooke and Andrew W. Robertson make the case for an electoral “pause” in anticipation of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. Here is an excerpt: [T]hose who view Donald Trump’s accession to the presidency with apprehension should make use of the much-needed “pause” in the… Read More
A few months ago, my friend Richard Flavin (an amateur historian living in Cambridge MA) sent me a message attached interesting scans from early American newspapers, concerning St. Hubertus, a figure about whom I have published (in JSRNC in 2008 and in Religion Dispatches earlier this year). I didn’t get a chance to look at the documents closely until… Read More
SHEAR is pleased to announce the creation of the SHEAR Second-Book Writers’ Workshop and to invite applications for its inaugural session at the annual meeting 20 – 23 July 2017 in Philadelphia. The journey from first to second book can be a difficult one. From choosing a topic for a second book to finding the time and support to… Read More
On August 24th of 1802, an elderly man reached the gate of the fort de Joux, in the Jura region of eastern France. Perched atop a mountain like an eagle in its aerie, the fort dated back to the Middle Ages and was now used as a political prison. The man was not just any prisoner: he had… Read More