The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Michael Patrick Cullinane
  • 4.5 (118)
  • History
  • Updated Bimonthly

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era is a free podcast about the seismic transitions that took place in the United States from the 1870s to 1920s. It's for students, teachers, researchers, history buffs, and anyone who wants to learn more about how our past connects us to the present. It is hosted by Boyd Cothran, professor of U.S. and Global history at York University, and Cathleen D. Cahill, Walter L. Ferree and Helen P. Ferree Professor in Middle-American History at Penn State University.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 20h ago

    122: The History and Legacy of Anthony Comstock and the Comstock Laws Part 1

    This week we talk to the editors and authors of a forum on The History and Legacy of Anthony Comstock and the Comstock Laws which was published in the Journal of Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Link to the introduction in the Journal of GAPE https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/abs/history-and-legacy-of-anthony-comstock-and-the-comstock-laws/C48D5A1CAA131C5745E4A979A431B65D?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark JGAPE's webpage: https://www.shgape.org/journal/about-jgape/ Lauren Thompson’s NYT piece on advertisements for abortifacients: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/13/opinion/sunday/abortion-history-women.html Kimberly A. Hamlin’s Free Thinker: The Extraordinary Life of the Fallen Woman Who Won the Vote  https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324004974 Allison K. Lange’s book, Picturing Political Power: Images in the Woman Suffrage Movement  https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo50270913.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 1m
  2. 121: Speed Capital: Indianapolis Auto Racing and the Making of Modern America

    May 20

    121: Speed Capital: Indianapolis Auto Racing and the Making of Modern America

    Today our guest is Dr. Brian Ingrassia Associate Professor of History at West Texas A&M University. He specializes in modern American history with a focus on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, as well as sport history, cultural/intellectual history, and Texas history. He is also the current editor of The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. If you listened to our OAH sampler episode last week you heard a little bit about the excellent work he does with the journal. This week we are here to talk about his most recent book, Speed Capital: Indianapolis Auto Racing and the Making of Modern America, which was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2024. We’re particularly grateful to Brian for talking with us because as many of you may know, the Indy 500 always takes place on Memorial Day Weekend, so this is a very timely episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    45 min

  3. May 13

    120.5 OAH Conference Sampler

    Here's a little bonus for you. A couple of weeks ago, the Organization of American Historians (OAH) held its annual conference in Philadelphia, PA.The Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is a sponsored organization of the OAH and have a large presence at the conference. It is where we hold our annual business meeting, journal editorial meeting, present our awards, sponsor panels, as well as hold a luncheon and a reception! For those of you who may not have been to the conference to participate in these events, we thought we'd bring the conference to you by providing a few short interviews with different folks who participated in SHGAPE events. This includes Dr. Eric Yellin's introduction to our sponsored panel, Government Corruption in the First Gilded Age; a short conversation with Dr. Ryan Hall who was one of the panelists on that panel, our distinguished luncheon lecturer, Dr. Mia Bay, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era's editor, Dr. Brian Ingrassia; and finally, Dr. Amy Wood and Dr. Jim Connelly, the conference co-chairs for the upcoming stand along SHGAPE conference being held in Chicago June 4-6, 2026, give a preview of what you can expect at that conference -- and there's still time to register at SHGAPE.org! Enjoy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    42 min

  4. May 6

    120: Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet

    In this episode, we speak with renowned-Roosevelt scholar and former host of the podcast Michael Patrick Cullinane about his new book Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet. We often imagine Theodore Roosevelt as a singular force who reshaped the presidency through sheer energy and will. But Cullinane offers a different perspective, showing how Roosevelt relied on a network of informal advisors—his “Tennis Cabinet”—to generate ideas, implement policy, and expand the reach of the federal government. Together, we explore how this network functioned, what it reveals about the emergence of the administrative state, and how it reshapes our understanding of executive power, both in the Progressive Era and today. You can purchase the book directly from the University of Nebraska Press here. Use the discount code "6AS26" at checkout to receive a 40% discount. About our guest: Michael Patrick Cullinane is Professor of History at Royal Holloway University of London and a leading scholar of the Theodore Roosevelt presidency. He is the author of several books, including Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon and Remembering Theodore Roosevelt. His work focuses on U.S. political history, memory, and the global dimensions of American power. Further Reading: Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin The Imperial Presidency by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    47 min
  5. 119: Old Women, Race, and Power

    Apr 22

    119: Old Women, Race, and Power

    We have a special treat for you today - we get to listen in on a panel from the conference Old Women, Race, and Power recorded at the Huntington Library in Pasadena CA.. The panel, "Challenging Colonial Imagery: Indigenous Centenarians and Gender in California,” explores the way old age and race intersected in ideas about Indigenous Californians, the California missions, and the Spanish fantasy past of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. https://www.huntington.org/event/old-women-race-and-power The panel includes scholars Boyd Cothran (York University)Martin Rizzo-Martinez (University of California, Santa Cruz)  Olivia Chilcote (San Diego State University) The excellent news for listeners is that there will be no ads today per the Huntington’s policies of not monetizing the content. But the Huntington does not endorse the podcast  and that the opinions expressed in the episode are those of the speakers and not the Huntington.  The images the panelists discuss are available in the following articles: Boyd Cothran and Martin Rizzo, "The Many Lives of Justiniano Roxas: The Centenarian Fantasy in American History and Memory," in Native American and Indigenous Studies, Volume 5, Issue 1, Spring 2018, 168-204 (University of Minnesota Press) Olivia Chilcote, "Q and A with Bad Indians on 'The Belles of San Luis Rey'” American Indian Culture and Research Journal  47(3) (2024), 47-57 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 5m
  6. 118: Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress -- And How to Bring it Back

    Apr 8

    118: Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress -- And How to Bring it Back

    Why does it feel like government can’t get things done? From housing to infrastructure to climate, even widely supported policies often stall. In this episode, Boyd Cothran speaks with Marc J. Dunkelman about his new book, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back. At the center of Dunkelman’s argument is a tension inside progressivism itself. Since the late nineteenth century, reformers have oscillated between two competing impulses: a Hamiltonian desire to build strong, capable institutions that can solve large-scale problems, and a Jeffersonian instinct to restrain power, disperse authority, and guard against coercion. The Progressive Era did not resolve this tension—it institutionalized it. In this episode, we explore the Progressive Era origins of this tension, the idea of a “Second Gilded Age,” and what it might mean to build a more effective state today. Further Reading: Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back Daniel Wortel-London and Boyd Cothran, “A Second Gilded Age? The Promises and Perils of an Analogy: Introduction” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 19, no. 2 (2020): 191–96. About the Guest: Marc J. Dunkelman is a fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. His work focuses on American political development, governance, and the history of reform. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 4m

  7. Mar 25

    117: 2026 SHGAPE Prize Winners

    Today we are delighted to welcome a guest host, Dr. Chelsea Gibson of SUNY Binghampton, and the co-editor of the SHGAPE Blog. who is interviewing three of the 2026 SHGAPE prize winners: Carlotta Wright de la Cal, winner of the SHGAPE research grant for her project “Rule of Rail: Railroad Labor and Cross-Border Mobility in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1880-1930.” Nicole Martin winner of the Fischer -Calhoun article prize for “The Indian, Chinese, and Mormon Questions: The American Home and Reconstruction Politics in the West”, Pacific Historical Review 93, no. 3 (Summer 2024): 445–474. Manisha Sinha winner of the 2026 Presidents’ Book Prize for The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 (Liveright, 2024) As many of you may know, our podcast’s sponsoring organization, Society for Historians of the GAPE or (SHGAPE) is an affiliated society of the Organization of American Historians (or OAH.  This means that we are quite engaged in the OAH’s annual conference, which is being held this year in Philadelphia on April 16-19, 2026. SHGAPE sponsors panels at the conference, and also offers workshops, lectures, a luncheon, a reception, and mentoring opportunities for emerging scholars at the annual meeting. The Society also offers a variety of awards, including book and article prizes, a graduate student essay prize, a distinguished historian award, and travel grants to the OAH for graduate students and contingent faculty. You can find out more information about these prizes and our other opportunities on the SHGAPE.org and more about the Organization of American Historians at oah.org A big congratulations to the winners and thanks to Dr. Chelsea Gibson for joining us as a guest host! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 17m
  8. 116: The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds

    Mar 11

    116: The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds

    In this episode, Boyd Cothran and Cathleen Cahill sit down with James H. McCommons to discuss his sweeping new book, The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds — publishing March 17, 2026. 📘 Pre-order now: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250286895/thefeatherwars/ At a moment when conservation feels both urgent and politically contested, McCommons takes us back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Americans nearly drove some of their most iconic bird species to extinction — not primarily for food, but for fashion. Millions of birds were killed to supply the booming plume trade. Entire rookeries were destroyed so feathers could adorn women’s hats. But The Feather Wars is about far more than birds. It is a story about how societies change. McCommons shows that reform required not only outrage, but organization; not only persuasion, but law. The eventual passage of federal wildlife protections reshaped American culture and preserved species that might otherwise have vanished. As we confront our own era of environmental crisis, this story raises enduring questions: How does a society move from normalization to moral reckoning? When does law follow culture — and when must it lead? What does it take to create durable change? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    54 min
See All (130)

4.5
out of 5
118 Ratings

About

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era is a free podcast about the seismic transitions that took place in the United States from the 1870s to 1920s. It's for students, teachers, researchers, history buffs, and anyone who wants to learn more about how our past connects us to the present. It is hosted by Boyd Cothran, professor of U.S. and Global history at York University, and Cathleen D. Cahill, Walter L. Ferree and Helen P. Ferree Professor in Middle-American History at Penn State University.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

You Might Also Like