By Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie (NHC Fellow, 2003–04) Thirty years before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the antislavery movement won its first victory in the British Parliament. On August 1, 1834, the Abolition of Slavery Bill took effect, ending colonial slavery throughout the British Empire. Over the next three decades, "August First Day," also known as … Continued
By Thomas R. Flynn (NHC Fellow, 1991–92) Sartre and Foucault were two of the most prominent and at times mutually antagonistic philosophical figures of the twentieth century. And nowhere are the antithetical natures of their existentialist and poststructuralist philosophies more apparent than in their disparate approaches to historical understanding. A history, thought Foucault, should be … Continued
By Richard W. Unger (NHC Fellow, 2008–09) Renaissance map-makers produced ever more accurate descriptions of geography, which were also beautiful works of art. They filled the oceans Europeans were exploring with ships and to describe the real ships which were the newest and best products of technology. Above all the ships were there to show … Continued
By Akasha Gloria Hull (NHC Fellow, 1994–95) From the last part of the twentieth century through today, African-American women have experienced a revival of spirituality and creative force, fashioning a uniquely African-American way to connect with the divine. In Soul Talk, Akasha Gloria Hull examines this multifaceted spirituality that has both fostered personal healing and functioned … Continued
By Timothy D. Taylor (NHC Fellow, 1999–00) In Strange Sounds, Timothy D. Taylor explains the wonder and anxiety provoked by a technological revolution that began in the 1940s and gathers steam daily. Taylor discusses the ultural role of technology, its use in making music, and the inevitable concerns about "authenticity" that arise from electronic music. Informative … Continued
Edited by Jack P. Greene (NHC Fellow, 1986–87; 1987–88; 2009–10) Papers presented at a symposium held at Johns Hopkins University, March 29-30, 1985; sponsored by the School of Continuing Studies and the Department of History of the Johns Hopkins University.
By Lewis Leary (NHC Fellow, 1978–79) Describes the efforts of Mason Locke Weems to distribute books across the United States during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
By Jill Raitt (NHC Fellow, 1987–88) Focusing on the Colloquy of Montbéliard, a theological debate in 1586 between Lutherans and Calvinists, Raitt explores the complex array of shifting political alliances and religious tensions which characterized the Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Augsburg. When the Wars of Religion broke out in France, both sides … Continued
By Andrew Delbanco (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1990–91; 2002–03) In a spiritual biography of America, Delbanco shows how writers of the past 3 centuries have depicted evil and how they have tried to defy and subdue it. He shows the strategies by which writers such as Cotton Mather, Jefferson and Lincoln, Emerson and Melville, Thoreau and … Continued
Edited by Ralph Lerner (NHC Fellow, 1981–82) and Philip B. Kurland Hailed as "the Oxford English Dictionary of American constitutional history" (Columbia Law Review), the print edition of The Founders’ Constitution has proved since its publication in 1986 to be an invaluable aid to all those seeking a deeper understanding of one of our nation’s most important … Continued