The Best American History Essays 2008 [Paperback]

This third annual volume from the Organization of American Historians, containing the best American history articles published between the summers of 2006 and 2007, provides a quick and comprehensive overview of the top work and the current intellectual trends in the field of American history. With contributions from a diverse group of historians, this collection appeals both to scholars and to lovers of history alike. Chinese Exclusion, Photography, and the Development of U.S. Immigration Policy by Anna Pelger-Gordon * From Crop Lien to Contract Farming: The Roots of Agribusiness in the American South, 1929-1939 by Monica Richmond Gisolfi * Rocking the Cradle: Downsizing the New England Family by Gloria L. Main * Exceptionalism and Globalism: Travel Writers and the Nineteenth-Century American West by David M. Wrobel * Class War? Class Struggles during the American Revolution in Virginia by Michael McDonnell * 'I have . . . a lot of work to do': Cotton Mill Work and Women's Culture in Matoaca, Virginia, 1888-95 by Beth English * 'It is His First Offense. We Might As Well Let Him Go': Homicide and Criminal Justice in Chicago, 1875-1920 by Jeffrey S. Adler * Educating the Eye: Body Mechanics and Streamlining in the United States, 1925-1950 by Carma Gordon * The Grape Vine Telegraph: Rumors and Confederate Persistence by Jason Phillips * 'They Are Ancestral Homelands': Race, Place, and Politics in Cold War Native America, 1945-1961 by Paul C. RosierThe Organization of American Historians is the largest learned society devoted to the study of American history. Since its founding in 1907, the OAH has promoted the study and teaching of the American past through its many activities. David Roediger (Editor) is the Kendrick C. Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of numerous books on American history.