Interview

By Vanessa Holden March 20, 2018

Interview with Michael Blaakman, 2016 SHEAR Manuscript Prize Winner

Michael Blaakman is an assistant professor of history at University of St. Thomas. His Yale University dissertation, “Speculation Nation: Land and Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic, 1776-1803,” won the 2016 SHEAR Manuscript Prize. The Republic (TR): Since most SHEARites won’t be able to read your dissertation until it is published, would you please provide a synopsis? Michael… Read More

InterviewSHEAR 2017 11 min read

By Vanessa Holden November 14, 2017

Interview with Caitlin Fitz, 2016 SHEAR Broussard Book Prize Co-Winner

Caitlin Fitz is Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern University. Her book Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions (2016) was co-winner of the James Broussard Best First Book Prize. The Republic (TR): For those who haven’t read your book, would you please provide a synopsis? Caitlin Fitz (CF): Our Sister Republics… Read More

InterviewSHEAR 2017 10 min read

By Vanessa Holden October 24, 2017

Interview with Jane Kamensky, 2016 SHEAR James Bradford Biography Prize

Jane Kamensky is Professor of History at Harvard University and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to winning the 2016 James Bradford Biography Prize from SHEAR, A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley (2016) was awarded the… Read More

Interview 7 min read

By Vanessa Holden October 10, 2017

Interview with Matthew Karp, 2016 SHEAR Broussard Book Prize Co-Winner

Matthew Karp is Assistant Professor of History and Elias Boudinot Bicentennial Preceptor at Princeton University. His book This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy (2016) was co-winner of the James Broussard Best First Book Prize. The Republic (TR). For those who haven’t read your book, would you please provide a synopsis?… Read More

Interview 10 min read

By Vanessa Holden September 26, 2017

Interview with Manisha Sinha, 2016 SHEAR Book Prize Winner

Manisha Sinha holds the Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut. She is the author or editor of several works, including The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina (2000). In addition to winning the 2016 SHEAR Book Prize, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition (2016) was awarded the Organization of… Read More

InterviewSHEAR 2017 7 min read

By Vanessa Holden September 27, 2016

Interview with Donald F. Johnson, 2016 Manuscript Prize Winner

At the 2016 SHEAR conference, Donald F. Johnson, assistant professor of history at North Dakota State University, received the SHEAR Manuscript Prize for his Northwestern University dissertation, “Occupied America: Everyday Experience and the Failure of Imperial Authority in Revolutionary Cities under British Rule, 1775-1783.” The Republic (TR): How would you summarize the argument of your dissertation? Donald F. Read More

InterviewSHEAR 2016 6 min read

By Vanessa Holden September 19, 2016

Interview with April R. Haynes, 2016 James H. Broussard Book Prize Winner

April R. Haynes is an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her book, Riotous Flesh: Women, Physiology, and the Solitary Vice in Nineteenth-Century America, was co-winner of the James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize. The Republic (TR): For those who haven’t read your book, would you provide a synopsis? April R. Haynes… Read More

April R. HaynesInterviewSHEAR 2016 17 min read

By Vanessa Holden September 12, 2016

Interview with Shane White, 2016 SHEAR Book Prize Winner

Shane White is the Challis Professor of History and an Australian Professorial Fellow in the History Department at the University of Sydney specializing in African-American history. His book, Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire, was this year’s SHEAR Book Prize winner. The Republic (TR): For those who… Read More

InterviewSHEAR 2016 8 min read

By Vanessa Holden August 29, 2016

Interview with Mary Sarah Bilder, 2016 James Bradford Biography Prize Winner

Mary Sarah Bilder is Founders Professor of Law at Boston College Law School. Her book, Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention, was the inaugural winner of SHEAR’s James Bradford Biography Prize. The Republic (TR): For those who haven’t read your book, would you provide a synopsis? Mary Sarah Bilder (MB): Madison’s Notes of the Constitutional Convention remain the standard authority for… Read More

InterviewSHEAR 2016 8 min read

By Vanessa Holden August 22, 2016

Interview with Rebeccah Bechtold, 2016 Ralph D. Gray Article Prize Winner

The Republic (TR): For those who haven’t read your article, would you provide a synopsis? Rebeccah Bechtold (RB): “A Revolutionary Soundscape: Musical Reform and the Science of Sound in Early America, 1760–1840” examines how the growing accessibility of music in the mid eighteenth century cultivated a wider appreciation for music as an individuated art. In this period, advocates for music… Read More

InterviewSHEAR 2016 5 min read