In Her Own Voice: Poems of Anandibai Joshee
Pilgrims in Print: Indigenous Readers Encounter John Bunyan
Cosmic Kinship: John Stewart’s “Sensate Matter” in the Early Republic
An American Flag in Japan: Townsend Harris and the materials of diplomacy, 1857-58
Common Sense and Imperial Atrocity
Ken Kesey Meets Lewis and Clark
Washington in China: A Media History of Reverse Painting on Glass
Curiosity and Cure: Peter Parker’s patients, Lam Qua’s portraits
“Like standing on the edge of the world and looking away into heaven”
A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of Wu Chih Tien: Mark Twain and Wong Chin Foo
Viewpoints on the China Trade
Chinese Market; Global Trade
Herman Melville and John Manjiro
From Necessity to Nuance: How Edith Maude Eaton Became Sui Sin Far, a Case Study
Finding the Early American Pacific
First Meetings in the North Pacific: Russians and “Americans” in the Aleutians
Silver, Science, and Routes to the West
A Radical Intellectual with Captain Cook: George Forster’s world voyage
American History on Other Continents
“Go West, Young Man…Far, Far West”
Go East, Young Man: How a drifter from Revolutionary Connecticut found the Pacific
The Printing Press as an Agent of Change?
One Man’s Skull
James Mario Matra: Voyager with Cook
Encompassing the Sea of Islands: A most remarkable beach crossing
Introduction: Toward a Pacific World
Pacific Travelers: The islanders who voyaged with Cook
Pacific Overtures
Malaspina off and on the American Northwest Coast
Creative Writing
Reviews
ABOUT
Welcome to Commonplace, a destination for exploring and exchanging ideas about early American history and culture. A bit less formal than a scholarly journal, a bit more scholarly than a popular magazine, Commonplace speaks—and listens—to scholars, museum curators, teachers, hobbyists, and just about anyone interested in American history before 1900. It is for all sorts of people to read about all sorts of things relating to early American life—from architecture to literature, from politics to parlor manners. It’s a place to find insightful analysis of early American history as it is discussed in scholarly literature, as it manifests on the evening news, as it is curated in museums, big and small; as it is performed in documentary and dramatic films and as it shows up in everyday life.
In addition to critical evaluations of books and websites (Reviews) and poetic research and fiction (Creative Writing), our articles explore material and visual culture (Objects); pedagogy, the writing of literary scholarship, and the historian’s craft (Teach); and diverse aspects of America’s past and its many peoples (Learn). For more great content, check out our other projects, (Just Teach One) and (Just Teach One African American Print).
How to cite Commonplace articles:
Author, “Title of Article,” Commonplace: the journal of early American life, date accessed, URL.
Sophie White, “Trading Looks Race, Religion and Dress in French America,” Commonplace: the journal of early American life, accessed September 30, 2019, https://commonplace.online/article/trading-looks-race-religion-dress-french-america/
Joshua R. Greenberg, editor
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