Harvesting and Threshing on the North American Plains
Bull Threshers and Bindlestiffs is a panorama on a continental canvas: the Great Plains of North America, stretching from Texas to Alberta. Onto this surface the author lays the large features of regional practice in the harvesting and threshing of wheat during the days before the combined harvester-harvesting with binder and header, threshing ......
British Military Assistance and African Independence
During the Cold War the British government oversaw the transition to independence of dozens of colonies. Often the most challenging aspect of this transition was the creation of a national army from colonial forces. In Built on the Ruins of Empire, Blake Whitaker examines this process in Kenya and Zambia and how it set the course for the creation ......
Black GIs, Military Labor, and the Fight for Equality in World War II
The previously overlooked story of how the labor of Black GIs helped win the war and advanced racial integration in the US armed forces.More than 80 percent of Black GIs in World War II served behind the front lines. At the beginning of the war, segregation policies maintained physical separation of Black and white GIs and only allowed Black ......
Has Texas always been one of the United States' most conservative states? The answer might surprise you. Bootstrap Liberalism offers a glimpse into the world of Depression-era Texas politics, revealing a partisan culture that was often far more ideologically nuanced and complex than meets the eye. The Lone Star State is often viewed as a bastion ......
US Army Physical Culture and Systematic Training, 1885-1957
Physical training in the US Army has a surprisingly short history. Bodies for Battle by Garrett Gatzemeyer is the first in-depth analysis of the US Army's particular set of practices and values, known as its physical culture, that emerged in the late nineteenth century in response to tactical challenges and widespread anxieties over diminishing ......
Winner: Paul Birdsall Prize Winner: Society for Military History book Award When Germany launched its blitzkrieg invasion of France in 1940, it forever changed the way the world waged war. Although the Wehrmacht ultimately succumbed to superior Allied firepower in a two-front war, its stunning operational achievement left a lasting impression on ......
Of the original Gilded Age, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote: "There is no other period in the nation's history when politics seems so completely dwarfed by economic changes, none in which the life of the country rests so completely in the hands of the industrial entrepreneur." The era of William Jefferson Clinton's ascent to the presidency was ......
The Case for Civically Engaged Political Scientists
While academics often treat their subject matter with a posture of detached objectivity, some have moved beyond the ivory tower of academia toward a more personal and active engagement with their area of research. The field of political science lends itself particularly well to this kind of activity given the relevance, impact, and importance of ......
The Case for Civically Engaged Political Scientists
While academics often treat their subject matter with a posture of detached objectivity, some have moved beyond the ivory tower of academia toward a more personal and active engagement with their area of research. The field of political science lends itself particularly well to this kind of activity given the relevance, impact, and importance of ......