The Journal of American History Organization of American Historians

In this episode of the Journal of American History Podcast Stephen Andrews speaks with Britain Hopkins about her article, "The Origins of the Student Loan Industry in the United States: Richard Cornuelle, United Student Aid Funds, and the Creation of the Guaranteed Student Loan Program," which appeared in the March 2024 issue of the Journal of American History. Through a consideration of key legislation and actors, Britain contributes to understandings of the origins of the student loan industry and student loan indebtedness in the United States. The article highlights how private organizations and actors—such as the American Bankers Association and the Volker Fund—worked with the Johnson and Nixon administrations to establish student loans as a primary means of funding higher education. These private-federal partnerships increasingly sought to commodify student loans on financial markets, thereby tethering access to higher education to previously excluded groups to market incorporation. The article thereby identifies the origins of student loan indebtedness as a legacy of the Johnson administration’s Great Society agenda. Stephen and Britain discuss neoliberalism, debt, and behind the scenes creation of this article. They also the historicize student debt and the complex, multifaceted issues that historically constructed the current student debt crisis.
Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaad351
Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923
X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History
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This Blogcast Episode features Stephen E. Mawdsley's article, "Hesitancy against Hope: Reactions to the First Polio Vaccine," first published in Process: A Blog for American History on January 9, 2024.
In this episode, Mawdsley uses the development of the Polio Vaccine to explicate the history public health campaigns and vaccine hesitance in the United States. He shows that "hesitancy and opposition can be effectively challenged through education and outreach initiatives that reach wider demographics to help reduce the incidence of disease."
Read the Blog here: https://www.processhistory.org/mawdsley-hesitancy-against-hope-reactions-to-the-first-polio-vaccine/
Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923
X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History

In this episode of the Journal of American History Podcast Amy Ransford speaks with Joshua A. McGonagle Altoff about his article, "Managing Settlers, Managing Neighbors: Renarrating Johnson v. McIntosh through the History of Piankashaw Community Building," which appeared in the March 2024 issue of the Journal of American History. The foundational 1823 Supreme Court case Johnson v. McIntosh drew from a 1775 negotiation between land speculators and Peeyankihšiaki (Piankashaw people) to subjugate Indigenous sovereignty to the plenary powers of Congress. This negotiation is usually framed as a “purchase,” but when read alongside a history of Peeyankihšia community building, it becomes clear that Peeyankihšia people intended to negotiate the right to live within, rather than own, their homelands. By moving away from the idea of a “purchase,” Joshua reveals how Peeyankihšiaki were preparing for prosperity, not declension, in the late eighteenth century. Amy and Joshua discuss sources, research, and behind the scenes creation of this article, and also the importance and implications of collaboration in historical research. 
Read the article here: https://www.oah.org/publications/jah/
Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923
X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History
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This Blogcast Episode features Kristin Oberiano's article, "Guåhan and the CHamoru People," first published in Process: A Blog for American History on October 31, 2023.
In this episode, Oberiano shows "how the politics of writing history is inextricable from the moments and movements that shaped us."
Read the Blog here: https://www.processhistory.org/oberiano-guahan-and-the-chamoru-people/
Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923
X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History

In this episode of the Journal of American History Podcast Steven Andrews speaks with Yevan Terrien about his article, "“Baptiste and Marianne’s Balbásha’: Enslavement, Freedom, and Belonging in Early New Orleans, 1733–1748," which appeared in the September 2023 issue of the Journal of American History. Yevan Terrien’s microhistory of slavery and marronage (slave desertion) focuses on the remarkable case of Baptiste and Marianne, Chickasaw-descendant siblings who grew up as captives in eighteenth-century New Orleans. Despite running away sixty-one times over nine years, they remained enslaved and, upon reaching adulthood, were eventually sold. Their actions helped them forge cultural ties to their Indigenous people and a network of Native, African, and European relations in French colonial Louisiana. As evidenced by their mapped desertions, Baptiste and Marianne succeeded in breaking their social isolation, including from each other, while petitioning with their feet for the freedom once promised them. Steve and Yevan discuss sources, research, and behind the scenes creation of this article, and also the significance and implications of this type of research in the broader historiography. 
Read the Article here: https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/110/2/230/7281085
Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923
X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History
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This Blogcast Episode features Emiliano Aguilar's article, "The Machiavelli of the Mexican American People: Steelworkers, the Catholic Church, and Building Political Power," first published in Process: A Blog for American History on March 28, 2023.
In this episode, Aguilar demonstrates the importance of education and union organizing in creating political power in the Latin American neighborhoods of East Chicago in the mid-20th century.
Read the Blog here: https://www.processhistory.org/aguilar-machiavelli-of-the-mexican-american-people/
Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923
X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History
#JAHCast #JAHBlogcast