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Dec. 2006
Volume 93, No. 3

Presidential Address
Articles
Round Table
Exhibition Reviews
Book Reviews
Movie Reviews
Web Site Reviews

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Presidential Address
Nuestra América: Latino History as United States History
	Why does Latino history matter? In her presidential address to the 2006 Organization of American Historians convention, Vicki L. Ruiz assesses the state of that field, highlighting sources, debates, and themes. Ruiz emphasizes three historical moments pivotal to reimagining an American narrative with Latinos as meaningful actors—1848 (the U.S.-Mexican War), 1898 (the Filipino-Cuban-Spanish-American War), and 1948 (the political activism of the Latino G.I. generation). From carving out a community in St. Augustine in 1565 to reflecting on colonialism and liberty in the 1890s to fighting for civil rights in the courts of the 1940s, Spanish-speaking peoples, Ruiz shows, have made U.S. history within and beyond the nation’s borders. (pp. 655–673) [Full text available at the History Cooperative]
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Articles
Telling Stories: The Political Uses of Myth and History in the Cherokee and Creek Nations
	Claudio Saunt explores the ways Creek and Cherokee leaders seized on evolving distinctions between myth and history to tell their peoples’ stories of origin to themselves and their Euro-American adversaries. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, Cherokees and Creeks invoked, exploited, and shaped Western fantasies about myth to preserve their land title. Similarly, they drew on Western conceptions of history to defend their nations’ sovereignty and to cultivate nationalism among their own people. In the hands of Indians, myth and history became powerful weapons in a struggle against the United States. (pp. 673–97) [Full text available at the History Cooperative]
Dorothea Lange: The Photographer as Agricultural Sociologist
	Dorothea Lange has been much studied as a photographer, but the content of her work has rarely been incorporated into our understanding of the New Deal. Linda Gordon examines Lange as both a paid propagandist for federal agricultural programs and a knowledgeable critic of the business of U.S. agriculture. Working as a team for the Farm Security Administration, Lange and her husband, Paul Schuster Taylor, an agricultural economist, called attention to the horrendous working and living conditions of farm workers across the United States, particularly in California, and denounced the practices of large-scale agribusiness. Lange’s photographs and little-studied captions reveal the inadequacy of New Deal attempts to help farm workers. (pp. 698–727) [Full text available at the History Cooperative]
Conventional Iconoclasm: The Cultural Work of the Nietzsche Image in Twentieth-Century America
	In 1899 the American philosopher Charles M. Bakewell wondered how he could rationalize the current vogue for Friedrich Nietzsche. The German philosopher challenged American ideals such as truth, rationality, and equality, as well as faith in God. Yet, Nietzsche has conquered present-day America, with his philosophy appearing everywhere from university courses to our morning papers. Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen argues that the philosopher’s ideas cannot be divorced from his being. Nietzsche tapped into an undercurrent of American culture: the contest over the intellectual. American readers, then and now, found in Nietzsche’s tragic story—his alienation, madness, and mental collapse—a narrative about heroic striving, the fate of genius, and individual achievement and failure in modern life. (pp. 728–55) [Full text available at the History Cooperative]
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Round Table
The State of Cultural History: A Conference in Honor of Lawrence W. Levine
	In September 2005 scholars gathered at George Mason University to assess the state of cultural history in America as a way of honoring Lawrence W. Levine and his work in creating and fostering the field. We publish some of the presentations from that conference. His longtime friend and colleague Leon F. Litwack sketches Levine’s life and career; Nell Irvin Painter and Jean-Christophe Agnew explore the significance of Levine’s work for the evolution of cultural history. A transcript of an oral history interview with Levine by Ann Lage, shown as a video at the conference, concludes our round table. We hope the essays and interview capture Levine as a scholar, a teacher, a pioneer in the world of history, and a man of humility and humor. “The State of Cultural History: A Conference in Honor of Lawrence W. Levine,” by Roy Rosenzweig (pp. 755–56) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “Introduction,” by Leon F. Litwack (pp. 757–60) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “‘Who We Are’: Lawrence Levine as William Jamesian Pragmatist and as Gustave de Baumont,” by Nell Irvin Painter (pp. 761–71) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “Capitalism, Culture, and Catastrophe: Lawrence Levine and the Opening of Cultural History,” by Jean-Christophe Agnew (pp. 772–91) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “An Interview with Lawrence W. Levine,” by Ann Lage (pp. 792–804) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] A memorial to Lawren W. Levine is available at http://chnm.gmu.edu/levine/.
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Exhibition Reviews
	“Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” by Randall M. Miller (pp. 805–808) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity 1915–1935,” by W. J. Rorabaugh (pp. 808–10) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “A Perfect Fit: The Garment Industry and American Jewry 1860–1960,” by Ann Meyerson (pp. 810–15) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “African American Vernacular Photography: Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection,” by Tanya Sheehan (pp. 815–19) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “Sikh Community: Over 100 Years in the Pacific Northwest,” by Purnima Dhavan (pp. 819–20) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Arab American National Museum, by Raymond Silverman (pp. 821–22) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] “America: Through Immigrant Eyes,” by Kathy M. Newman (pp. 825–27) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, by Trevor Jones (pp. 827–30) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Mahatma Gandhi Memorial, by Nico Slate (pp. 830–33) [Full text available at the History Cooperative]
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Book Reviews
A complete listing of book reviews is available here.
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Movie Reviews
	”Reel Report, 2005–2006,“ by Robert Brent Toplin (pp. 965–67) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Massacre at Mystic, by Tracy Neal Leavelle (pp. 967–68) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] The War That Made America: The Story of the French and Indian War, by Daniel P. Barr (pp. 968–69) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] John and Abigail Adams, by C. Bradley Thompson (pp. 969–70) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexepectedly Changed America: Shays’ Rebellion—America’s First Civil War, by Donald L. Robinson (pp. 970–71) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] The Supreme Court, Part I: The Least Dangerous Branch, by Scott D. Gerber (pp. 971–72) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] John Marshall: Citizen, Stateman, Jurist, by Scott King-Owen (pp. 972–73) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Gold Rush, by Mark A. Eifler (pp. 973–74) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Antietam, by John Cimprich (pp. 974–75) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: The Homestead Strike, by Edward Slavishak (pp. 975–76) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, by Tilden Edelstein (pp. 976–77) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Mary Pickford, by Kathleen Feeley (pp. 977–79) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Scopes—The Battle over America’s Soul, by Constance Clark (pp. 979–80) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Eugene O’Neill: A Documentary Film, by Peter Conn (pp. 980–81) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Langston Hughes: Working toward Salvation, by Kate A. Baldwin (pp. (pp. 981–82) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] The March of the Bonus Army, by Paul Bonnifield (pp. 982–83) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Einstein’s Letter, by Wyn Wachhorst (pp. 983–84) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] The Nuremberg Trials, by Manfred Jonas (pp. 984–85) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Good Night, and Good Luck, by Ron Briley (pp. 985–86) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Las Vegas: An Unconventional History, by Hal K. Rothman (pp. 986–87) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: When America was Rocked, by Michael T. Bertrand (pp. 987–88) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Brokeback Mountain, by Susan Lee Johnson (pp. 988–90) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Capote, by Charles L. Ponce de Leon (pp. 990–91) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Freedom Summer, by Mark Newman (pp. 991–92) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Two Days in October, by Jeremi Suri (pp. 992–93) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Race to the Moon: The Daring Adventure of Apollo 8, by Roger D. Launius (pp. 994–95) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Broken Brotherhood: Vietnam and the Boys from Colgate, by Scott Laderman (pp. 995–96) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] A Reunion of Soldiers (A Vietnam Reflection: A Documentary), by Pierre Asselin (pp. 996–97) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern, by Edward P. Morgan (pp. 997) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, by Thomas Doherty (pp. 997–99) [Full text available at the History Cooperative]
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Web Site Reviews
The full text of Web site reviews is also available here. The New Georgia Encyclopedia, by J. William Harris (pp. 1000–1002) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Investing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies, by Elena Razlogova (pp. 1002) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Separate Is Not Equal Brown v. Board of Education; The University of Michigan Digital Archive Brown v. Board of Education, and Brown@50: Fulfilling the Promise, by Mary L. Dudziak (pp. 1002–1004) [Full text available at the History Cooperative] Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution, by Lila Corwin Berman (pp. 1004–1005) [Full text available at the History Cooperative]
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Letters to the Editor Announcements Recent Scholarship “Recent Scholarship” is available online at http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/rs/200612.html.
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On the cover: “Near Douglas, Georgia. ‘You don’t have to worriate so much and you’ve got time to raise somp’n to eat.’ The program to eliminate the risk and uncertainty of a one-crop system meets the approval of this sharecropper. She sits on the porch and sorts tobacco.” July 1938. Photo by Dorothea Lange. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, fsa/owi Collection, LC-USF34-018708-E. See Linda Gordon, “Dorothea Lange: The Photographer as Agricultural Sociologist,” p. 698.