Modern American History

This is the first piece in our forthcoming special issue "A Water's History of the United States"

Special thanks to The Roosevelt Institute for American Studies and our guest editors Dario Fazzi (Dario Fazzi) and Gaetano di Tommaso

Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, May 8, 2018. Wikimedia Commons.

Up on First View, a research article by Thomas Blake Earle grounds the experience of Vietnamese fishers on the coast of Texas in the history of the marine environment.


Link Below!

Interested in learning more about how curators are bringing the history of Indigenous peoples to the public?

Historians Amanda Cobb-Greetham and Scott Manning Stevens interview curators Kathleen Ash-Milby, Jordan Poorman Cocker, and Patricia Marroquin Norby on Indigenous history in museums

Read the article here: www-cambridge-org.pr...

View of Altadena in the aftermath of the Eaton Fires, January 13, 2025. Grigory Hinton. Wikimedia Commons

A new "Into the Stacks" on First View. Paige Glotzer makes the case that historians need to examine suburban history through the lens of capital, gentrification, and climate histories.

Linked below!

Super delighted and honored to have a new piece out in Modern American History, which I’ve coauthored with my friend and colleague Brent Campney. Best part—it’s open access! 🗃️

Read the article here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Farmworkers gather for a small rally during a 1966 march from San Juan, Texas, to the state capitol in Austin to protest their appalling working conditions. Courtesy Migrant Farm Workers Organizing Movement Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Arlington, Texas.

On First View, A research article from Brent Campney and @tbowmanhist.bsky.social that charts growers' vigilante violence in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to suppress farmworker activism in the 70s & their shift in 1980 to nonviolent methods associated with neocon backlash.

Linked below!

Photograph of Adriane Lentz-Smith

Photo of Roy Wood Jr. Copyright to Peter Yang.

New on First View from 8.3!

An interview by @duke-university.bsky.social professor Adriane Lentz-Smith with one of the United States’ leading comedic journalists @roywoodjr.bsky.social on finding humor in our study of the past.

Read the full piece here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Did you present at #AHA2026 and receive promising feedback on your research? If so, consider submitting to MAH. Email mah@cambridge.org if you have questions.

Are you attending AHA? Visit the booth of our published, CUP!

proud to be part of this conversation on the battle for academic freedom and its many dimensions across the country. look for the folks in your community who are organizing and building power together!

Their comments shed light on commonalities in the attacks historians face, the effects of attacks on teaching and research, & ways historians are fighting back.

@juliocapojr.bsky.social , @melanienewport.bsky.social , @joanecashin.bsky.social

Now on First View: The latest MAH Q&A on how the national crisis in higher ed affects historians of the modern United States. Lauren Jae Gutterman speaks to Julio Capó, Jr., Joan E. Cashin, Alex Lichtenstein, and Melanie Newport.

Read the full Q&A here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The cover of In the Shadow of Diagnosis: Psychiatric Power and Queer Life by Regina Kunzel.

Kunzel’s most recent book, "In the Shadow of Diagnosis: Psychiatric Power and Queer Life," explores the encounter of queer and gender-variant people with psychiatry in the 20-century US.

Photo of Dr. Regina Kunzel

A warm welcome to our new board member!

Regina Kunzel, Larned Professor of History and Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, at Yale is an historian of the modern US with interests in histories of gender & sexuality, queer history, history of psychiatry, and history of incarceration.

The Executive Editors of MAH, Darren Dochuk and Sarah Snyder, will be coming to the end of their editorial term in summer 2027. CUP, in collaboration with an Editorial Board search committee, is now inviting applications for their successors, to begin a term in July 2027. The deadline for applications is September 30, 2026. Working in collaboration with an active Editorial Board, editorial responsibilities will include: -Shaping the strategic direction of the journal and defining editorial policy. -Overseeing a rigorous, constructive, supportive peer review and editorial process. -Making all final decisions on acceptance, rejection, and revisions. -Actively commissioning across a range of article types and collections. Please indicate in your application: -Your experience publishing and researching in this field. -Previous editorial experience or roles in academic administration. -The breadth and scale of your academic network. -Your historiographical vision for MAH over the next five years; including: o MAH’s identity within a rapidly developing field. o Critical themes and subject matter. -Your strategy for developing Modern American History over the next five years; including: oSupporting and attracting diversity. oOrganising and maximising the contribution of the Editorial Board. oEnsuring academic quality and scholarly impact. oEngaging with developments in scholarly communication and research practice. MAH’s editorial team can expect solid support from the Press in collaboration with the editors’ home institutions. Applicants are encouraged to include information about the potential form and extent of institutional support from their universities where available. Interested applicants should send a resume/CV and a brief cover letter detailing their qualifications and interest in the position to Chris McKeen, Associate Publisher, Cambridge University Press at chris.mckeen@cambridge.org, using “Modern American History editor search” as the subject line.

With Alt-Text!

Would you be interested in editing an academic journal? MAH's editors will end their term in summer 2027, and CUP is looking for a new editorial team.

Interested applicants should send a CV and a brief cover letter to Chris McKeen (chris.mckeen@cambridge.org). Details below.

*Call for Applications*

Would you be interested in editing an academic journal? MAH editors Sarah Snyder and Darren Dochuk will reach the end of their term in summer 2027, and Cambridge is looking for a new editorial team.

More details below.

Now out on First View!

Cover of Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore.

Photo of Ashley D. Farmer

Congratulations to MAH editorial board member, @drashleydfarmer.bsky.social, on her new book, "Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore." Read for a narrative history of 20th-century Black radicalism told through the life of one trailblazing woman.

Up now on First View!

Are you presenting at the S-USIH annual meeting in Detroit this weekend? Consider submitting an article version of your conference paper to Modern American History! #USIH2025

This image points readers to the curated collection on MAH's website.

Are you interested in scholarship on policing, incarcertaion, and crime? Our curated collection on the topic is a valuable resource.

Access all the pieces here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Also from 8.2: a Soapbox feature by Alexander Jacobs: "The Crisis of American Conservatism," which examines the contradiction of the crisis in American conservatism while conservatives are in political power.

Read here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

In honor of Indigenous History Day, read about Inidgenous Art in US museums.

Gallery view, Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me, Venice, Italy, 2024. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the Portland Art Museum.

A new Q&A in 8.2: "The Indigenous Turn in Museums." Two historians and three curators reflect on their work, curatorial visions, goals for reaching wider publics through Indigenous arts, and the extent to which an “Indigenous turn” has transpired.

Read here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

PhD Candidate Jan Michael

Congratulations to the honorable mention for our third Annual Brooke L. Blower and Sarah T. Phillips Essay Prize winner: Jan Michael at @tgsatnu.bsky.social for "The Boundaries of Power: How Posse Comitatus Sought to Dismantle the U.S. State."

Look for the article in a future issue of MAH!

Keep an eye out for the full article in a future issue of MAH!

Syrus Solo Jin

We're excited to announce the winner of the third annual Brooke L. Blower and Sarah T. Phillips Essay Prize: @syrussolojin.bsky.social at @nyu.edu with “‘Are You My Kimchi Mother?’ Race, Women, and the U.S. Military’s Study Abroad Training Program in the Early Cold War.”