The past is never dead. It's not even past
By Alina Scott The study of gender continues to evolve and push the discipline of history forward. Over the years, Not Even Past has published a wide range of pieces on the topic. The articles, podcasts, book reviews, and teaching materials span the globe. This collection features articles and books about gender, the way it […]
by Anne M. Martínez, American Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands A few years ago we had a speaker at an American Studies event here in Groningen who claimed that the field of American Studies and America itself, revolved around ideas of democracy and equality until the 1980s, when ethnic studies became more widespread, and […]
This article was originally posted in the Briscoe Center for American History’s Newsletter. By Benjamin Wright In 1918, Spanish influenza ravaged a war-weary world, killing as many as 40 million people across the globe and over half a million in America. In the oil fields of Texas, the flu was particularly vindictive due to poor […]
By Madeline Hsu Several UT history faculty, including Daina Berry, Madeline Hsu, Peniel Joseph, Jeremi Suri, and Provost Maurie McInnis, extend their expertise to K-12 classrooms by teaching for the Pace-GLI Master of Arts in American History, with courses such as “The Lives of the Enslaved” and “American Immigration History.” GLI, or the Gilder Lehrman […]
By Raymond Hyser April 22-23, 2021Institute for Historical Studies, University of Texas at Austin This conference brings together diverse scholars whose work grapples with the challenges that climate change presents to the discipline of history. Participants will address precedents for this “unprecedented” crisis by uncovering and analyzing the historical roots and analogues of contemporary climate […]
If we understand Alvarez’s decision to tattoo as a direct response to the soldiers’ threats, his story elucidates the limits of state power. Where death squads in Guatemala repeatedly executed civilians and deprived their families of closure, Alvarez’s tattoo might have thwarted such efforts had he died. If the army killed him, or Felipe, or Alberto, their markings might have rendered them more recognizable to their families regardless of the military's brutality. Their mothers and fathers could then recite the Lord’s Prayer and give them a proper burial. In this sense, Alvarez’s tattoo embodies rebellion against the Guatemalan government’s authority to deprive families of the ability to grieve. His indelible ink, even in death, may have prevented the state from terrorizing his people and denying them this right.
On the eve of the Civil War, an advertisement appeared in the Texas Almanac announcing the sale of five enslaved people at the Stringer’s Hotel. “Negroes For Sale––I will offer for sale, in the city of Austin, before the Stringer’s Hotel, on the 1st day of January next, to the highest bidder, in Confederate or […]
By Candice D. Lyons In the spring of 1852, Benjamin Roper, overseer to Galveston area plantations Evergreen and Headquarters, wrote a short letter to his employer to inform him that “on the night of [April] 30 I cut Lewis [an enslaved man] with a knife . . . . He is now and has been […]
by Rachel Ozanne The late Professor Norman D. Brown was a fixture of the UT Austin History Department for nearly four decades, and his classes on Texas history were popular favorites among undergraduates and graduate students. In 1984, Texas A&M University Press published Brown’s Hood, Bonnet, and Little Brown Jug: Texas Politics, 1921-1928, which is […]
By Daniel Josiah Thomas III On November 6, 1855, Washington Hill commissioned Abner H. Cook to build a southern plantation house in Austin, Texas. The Texas Historical Commission reported that “the property worth $900 in August 1855 was worth $8,000 when Hill paid his taxes for 1856.” When the two-story limestone home was completed, Hill […]