Presenting the Past
1865 - 1920s
The Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is an organization of historians who study and promote knowledge of American history from the Reconstruction era through the aftermath of World War I. The society brings together academic, public, and independent historians, as well as scholars in other humanities and social-science disciplines interested in these decades and their issues.
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At its core, industrial education was a project of imperial modernity that sought to reform marginalized populations towards the extractive ends of empire and capital. Its architects and practitioners identified interlocked civilizational and financial benefits… Read More
Orchestrating Power explores how the expansion of the American state for the First World War reshaped the nature of governance. Nathan K. Finney focuses on North Carolina’s Council of Defense to describe how the council was… Read More
Gilded Age Entrepreneur details the life of an unjustly forgotten Gilded Age figure. Older brother of the notorious George Pullman, Albert Pullman made three early contributions to the success of Pullman’s Palace Car Company: his… Read More
In A Great Many Refugees Thomas A. Krainz examines how communities in the American West cared for refugees. The ten case studies include a range of different causes that forced people to flee, including revolution, war, genocide,… Read More
Nearly everything about the United States tobacco economy changed in the generation following the American Civil War. From labor to consumption, manufacturing to regulation, tobacco was utterly reconstructed, “comparatively a new industry,” as one contemporary… Read More
Playwright, composer, lyricist, director, producer, and star performer George M. Cohan (1878–1942) looms large in musical theater legend, remembered for tunes like “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Cohan’s early… Read More
A fresh exploration of the life and work of American expatriate artist Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855-1919), whose depictions of expat high society in Paris won acclaim in Europe and the United States and still feature… Read More
Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent explores the history of the Gilded Age, using three people as its guide. Robert Ray Hamilton was a state lawmaker from New York and the great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton. John Dudley Sargent came from a long… Read More
Charles Cowlam’s career as a convict, spy, detective, congressional candidate, adventurer, and con artist spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age. He is the only person known to have been pardoned by both Abraham Lincoln… Read More
As Americans–both civilians and veterans–worked to determine the meanings of identity for blind veterans of World War I, they bound cultural constructs of blindness to all the emotions and contingencies of mobilizing and fighting the… Read More
Membership in SHGAPE affords you a place in the primary professional network of Gilded Age and Progressive Era scholars. Your membership gains you entry into a vibrant and growing community and helps to advance your understanding of a critical period in American history. As a self-supporting organization, SHGAPE depends on its members to continue its current activities and take on new initiatives
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