The essay below originally appeared in The Weekly Wonk in April 2014, following the announcement of the Supreme Court decision in the case of McCutcheon v. FEC. Campaign Finance Beyond McCutcheon By Matthew Pinsker The history behind the dramatic…
Author: Matthew Pinsker
ESSAY –Emancipation Moments
The essay excerpted below originally appeared in Emancipation at 150: The Impact of Emancipation, a special e-book anthology produced in 2013 on the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln’s Cottage and the US Commission on Civil Rights. Emancipation…
ESSAY –Interpreting the Upper-Ground Railroad
The essay excerpted below originally appeared in Max van Balgooy, ed., Interpreting African American History and Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 75-88. It argues for a more sophisticated understanding of interpreting Underground Railroad sites, one that emphasizes how open much…
ESSAY –Myth of Rivals
In 2008, Matthew Pinsker produced an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that challenged the way then President-Elect Barack Obama was interpreting the popular study of the Lincoln Administration (Team of Rivals) by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Pinsker’s short essay has been…
ESSAY –1860 in Springfield, Illinois
House Divided Project intern Don Sailer produced a vivid description of the 1860 Election Day in Springfield, Illinois. Sailer doesn’t mention this fact in his concise post, but Abraham Lincoln only barely won his hometown in 1860, prevailing over Stephen A.…
ESSAY –Norman Thomas in 1932
In Fall 2010, Dickinson College student Leah Kaplan reminded readers that Socialist Norman Thomas performed exceptionally well in the 1932 presidential contest –even better perhaps than the official results indicated. She suggests that Thomas and the Socialists may have received over…
ESSAY –Women for Hoover
In Fall 2010, Dickinson College student Ryan Sellinger chronicled the role of women voters in Republican Herbert Hoover’s commanding victory in the 1928 presidential election. 1928 Election: Women for Hoover
ESSAY –Election Day 1884
In Fall 2010, Dickinson College student Peter Wright produced a concise essay that described how the presidential election of 1884 between Democrat Grover Cleveland and Republican James G. Blaine had turned quite personal and nasty. Mugwumps and Mudslingers: The Bitter…
ESSAY –Women and the Election of 1912
In Fall 2010, Dickinson College student Alix Poeton offered a useful reminder that women affected American presidential politics before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. She focuses on the role of women in 1912 and helps explain their support for…
ESSAY –Boston Mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald
In Fall 2010, Dickinson College student Will Nelligan produced a lively short profile of John F. Kennedy’s grandfather, John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, who was elected mayor of Boston in 1905. Ring the Bell Twice: Honey Fitz