Nineteenth Century America
From the Archives: The Arabia Steamboat Museum
Yesterday I spent several hours working on a new blog post for today. Quite frankly, I got tangled in the details. By the time I got myself untangled enough to know what I needed to say, I really needed to move on. Because I have a book to finish. Instead of going dark, I offer…
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How the Wickedest City in the American West Created Frontier Justice In Spite of Itself
Tom Clavin opens Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and the Wickedest Town in the American West with Masterston stepping off the train in Dodge City, expecting trouble. The scene is tense; Clavin deliberately evokes the images of lawlessness, and violence associated with the city’s name. (Not to mention similar images attached to Masterston himself.)…
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What Makes a Mosque, Part Five: America’s Oldest Mosque
If you listen to the news, you’d think that Islamic immigrants to the United States are something new. They’re not. Beginning in the 1880s and ending only when the United States closed the door on non-European immigrants in 1924, Muslims from Ottoman-controlled Syria joined the rush to emigrate to America. Like their European counterparts, most…
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