Jen McPherson (PhD Candidate, University of New Mexico) is a graduate project assistant for the American Historical Association’s Career Diversity Initiative at the University of New Mexico. Today she shares some important lessons from her work with Erstwhile. For the last three years, the History Department at the University of New Mexico has been one of four pilot programs participating…
This week, Erstwhile draws attention to an ongoing online encyclopedia project on the state of Colorado. A number of our editors have contributed entries to the encyclopedia. Contributing editor Graeme Pente produced the piece below on the history of Populism in the state. For more information on the Colorado Encyclopedia, please visit their website and explore the…
Erstwhile editor Beau Driver returns to the Graphic Histories series with his review of Wobblies: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World (2005), edited by Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman. Author’s note: In the wake of the recent shooting of an IWW member and apparent anti-fascist demonstrator at the University of Washington…
Erstwhile reflects on the rise of skepticism about observed reality and what it means for the intellectual foundations of our modern world. The president lives in his own reality. From erroneous claims about voter fraud to explain away his losing the popular vote to “alternative facts” about the size of the inauguration crowd, Donald Trump and…
Erstwhile is back from our holiday break! This week Sara Porterfield reflects on her experience at the American Historical Association’s annual conference and the relationship between academic and non-academic careers and historians. The American Historical Association (AHA) held its annual conference in Denver over the first weekend of 2017, complete with single-digit temperatures and a foot of…
The contributing editors at Erstwhile wish you a happy holiday season. While the bloggers are on leave, we hope you will revisit and enjoy the semester’s material. Thoughtful historical commentary on current events, research, and ideas will resume in January!
Erstwhile contributing editor Sara Porterfield compiles a multi-genre reading list of books that explore the minds of white working-class Trump supporters. Last month’s presidential election left many of us reeling, disoriented in a world and a nation we thought we knew. Inspired by this short NPR article and this 2013 study that found reading fiction increased…
On July 10th, 2015, members of a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard reeled down the Confederate flag from a pole in front of the statehouse. Ten thousand onlookers roared excitedly as the flag descended, some cheering “USA! USA! USA!” – a traditionally patriotic shout that took on new meaning when chanted at the flag representing the Confederate…
This Thanksgiving, look back on some of the pieces on Native America that Erstwhile has published over the years. The list starts with the oldest posts first. Update: for 2017, I have added in four pieces that we published over the course of the past year! Erstwhile sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and CU Boulder professor…
Erstwhile contributing editor Graeme Pente explores the implications of a new Canadian multimedia project that encourages the country to confront its colonial history with the region’s First Peoples. You don’t make a dent / In indifference / Ya gotta haunt them, haunt them, haunt them — Gord Downie, Secret Path (2016) The graphic novel is the…
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