
An Uncertain Founding: Santa Fe

Imperial city of the Aztecs: Mexico-Tenochtitlan

Big Dig, Little Dig, Hidden Worlds: Boston

We Shall Be One People: Quebec

Constructing the House of Chouteau: Saint Louis

The High Place: Potosi

Where All the Trains Ran: Chicago

A View from the Parish Jail: New Orleans

Sex, Vigilantism, and San Francisco in 1856

The Prideful Mission and the Little Town: Los Angeles

Cities in Review

Founding Others

Treasure City: Havana

Introduction: A Worm’s Eye View

The Souls of African American Children: New Amsterdam

Mobtown U.S.A.: Baltimore

Mean Streets, Mannered Streets: Charleston

A View from Graveside: Salt Lake City

Walking Moraley’s Streets: Philadelphia

A Day in the Life: Lima

National Domesticity in the Early Republic: Washington, D.C.

Violence and Hope in a Space of Death: Paramaribo
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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