Person

Peter S. Onuf

Bylines

Jefferson and the Declaration

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence announced a new epoch in world history, transforming a provincial tax revolt into a great struggle to liberate humanity.

by Peter S. Onuf via American Heritage on January 1, 2020
Fresh Takes on the Declaration of Independence

A new look at the Declaration of Independence from 24 scholars across the country.

by Robert G. Parkinson, Annette Gordon-Reed, Claudio Saunt, Peter S. Onuf, Jack Rakove, Alexander Tsesis, Karin Wulf, Tiya Miles, Caitlin Fitz, Johann N. Neem, Robert Allison, Alejandra Dubcovsky, Gautham Rao, Seth Cotlar, Manuel Covo, Kathleen DuVal, Maya Jasanoff, Zara Anishanslin, Steven Pincus, Carla Gardina Pestana, Andrew Schocket, Sara Georgini, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Nicole Eustace via Declaration Resources Project on June 1, 2017
Jefferson: Hero or Villain? It’s Complicated.

An interview with Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf.

by Annette Gordon-Reed, Richard Kreitner, Peter S. Onuf via Boston Review on May 19, 2016

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Historians Write About a Different Jefferson Now: Four Books Show How Different

Four new books show how different, and maybe also why.

by S. Richard Gard Jr. via Virginia Magazine on December 1, 2019

Jefferson’s Monticello Finally Gives Sally Hemings Her Place in Presidential History

New exhibits put slavery at the center of Monticello's story, and make it clear that Jefferson was the father of Hemings' children.

by Philip Kennicott via Washington Post on June 13, 2018

Thomas Jefferson and Us

The resurgence of the debate over the Sage of Monticello's legacy: Is Jefferson the ultimate patriot or ultimate hypocrite?

by David Sehat via William and Mary Quarterly on October 1, 2017

Sylvester Graham, an American Lecturer on Physiology and Health

Calming the System

On the diet created by Sylvester Graham, designed to ward off a new kind of “health” threat in the liberal 1830s – a masturbation epidemic.

via BackStory on January 6, 2017

Henry S. Club

Meatless Moralism

Adam Shprintzen discusses the 19th-century Americans who saw a vegetarian diet as a powerful tool of moral reform, one that could even put an end to slavery.

via BackStory on January 6, 2017

Nurses prepare food in a hospital kitchen.

Counting Calories

Charlotte Biltekoff talks about the rise of calories at the turn of the 20th century and the push to get scientific nutritional ideas into American mainstream.

via BackStory on January 6, 2017

Newspaper ad for milk, recommending "the active youngster" should "drink a quart a day."

Got Milk?

The hosts discuss the transformation of milk from a dangerous, marginalized 19th Century dairy product, to a 20th Century superfood.

via BackStory on January 6, 2017

Shop window decorated with bride and groom mannequins and wedding paraphernalia, from Baum's "Show Window" magazine.

The Wonderful Windows of Oz

The story of author L. Frank Baum’s very successful career creating other fantasy lands—department store windows.

via BackStory on December 15, 2016

Furniture and carpet store in the 1789 Boston directory.

Revolutionary Spirit

On the widespread boycotts of British-made goods in the American Colonies.

via BackStory on December 15, 2016

An aerial view of the Target store in Ocean Township, NJ.

Boxed In

On the rise of the modern box store as a rebellion against the carefully controlled world of the department store.

via BackStory on December 15, 2016

Person carrying live Thanksgiving turkey

American as Pumpkin Pie: A History of Thanksgiving

Why Pilgrims would be stunned by our "traditional" Thanksgiving table, and other surprising truths about the invention of our national holiday.

via BackStory on November 25, 2016

Boy carrying a live turkey over his shoulder.

No, Thanks

The Thanksgiving meal we consider traditional would have likely disgusted the Pilgrims. What would early Americans have eaten?

via BackStory on November 25, 2016

Oneida Community members outside their mansion house, ca. 1865-1875.

When We Say “Share Everything,” We Mean Everything

On the Oneida Community, a radical religious organization practicing “Bible communism,” and eventually, manufacturing silverware.

via BackStory on November 17, 2016

Floyd B. McKissick and Kimp Talley stand in front of a tall sign that reads "Soul City."

Soul City

In the 1960s, civil rights activist Floyd McKissick successfully sold President Nixon on an idea of a black built, black-owned community in North Carolina.

via BackStory on November 17, 2016

Godey's Lady's book cover, 1867.

All Hale Thanksgiving

In the 1820s, Sarah Hale, a New England widow and the editor of Godey’s Ladies Book made it her mission to get Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday.

via BackStory on November 15, 2016

Benjamin West's replica of his painting "Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain in the Year 1783."

The Loyal Opposition

On the Loyalists who fled during the Revolutionary War – like Jacob Bailey, who saw freedom from tyranny with the British in Nova Scotia.

via BackStory on November 11, 2016

New York City (New York, USA), Brooklyn Bridge.

Over Troubled Waters

Looking for an easy buck, con artists in the early 1900s infamously "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge to immigrants fresh off the boat.

via BackStory on October 20, 2016

Fake 1000 dollar bill.

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

The story of America's oldest counterfeiters and why the Civil War spurred the Secret Service into hunting them down.

via BackStory on October 20, 2016

Policemen with nightsticks dragging Black man down the street.

The Reason in the Riot

Senator Fred Harris describes his experience on the Kerner Commission, tasked with explaining the causes of urban riots in 1967.

via BackStory on August 18, 2016

A pile of trash on the street in New York, 1911.

The Pig Apple

The story of the thousands of free-range pigs who managed New York’s waste in the 1800s.

via BackStory on August 4, 2016

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