The University of Colorado Denver’s Historical Studies Journal, now in its 41st volume, showcases excellent undergraduate and graduate historical research. For four decades, the journal has shared students’ thoughtful work and provided the opportunity for them to participate in a peer review process as authors and editors. This is the third year that the journal has been entirely online, allowing more people to access it and providing a space where digital-based projects can be published.
With this 41st volume of the Historical Studies Journal, I am proud to showcase a wide variety of topics and perspectives. The articles selected will transport readers all over the world. Within the United States, Scott Burgess takes readers to the shore of Lake Michigan with “Benton Harbor, Michigan: A Small City with Big Problems”; Kathryn Leonard transports us to 20th-century rural Arkansas in “‘We Shall Not Be Moved’: The National Discourse of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, 1934-1936”; and Kira Boatright’s “Casualties of War: The Missing Pieces of the Historiography of the Cripple Creek Strike (1903-1904)” brings us home to Colorado. Further afield, Lucas Keisel analyzes Palestinian communal relations in Lebanese refugee camps with his article “A Collective Separation: Palestinians Communal Divides in Lebanon Between 1948-1967,” and Eber Condrell provides a fascinating history of the Russian Orthodox Church and its current role in “Reciprocity and Power: The Russian Orthodox Church in the Era of Putin.” Several articles examine larger intellectual movements and their connections to Denver. Kolette Young’s “Masculinity and the ‘Forgotten Man’: The Role of Anti-modernism in Shaping American Economic and Cultural Change, 1880-1930” uses a local club to analyze changing ideas of masculinity, Michelle Rich’s “‘Change will occur, for whose benefit?’: Gentrification in Five Points, 1975-1984” analyzes change in downtown Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, and Summer Carper’s “Reproducing Morality: Dr. Minnie Love, Social Movements, and Eugenics in Early Twentieth Century Denver” tells the tale of a complex Denverite and the interplay of the social, political, and medical spheres. Jon Perkins provides us with an in-depth historiography of labor law in “One Law, Many Interpretations: Scholars’ Views of the Origins of the Wagner Act and Its Implications for American Workers.” Last but certainly not least, Katie Mumby tells the engrossing tale of an innovative sociologist and feminist in “Advocate and Pioneer: Ruth Murray Underhill (1883-1984).” Congratulations to all the contributors to this volume of the Historical Studies Journal!
The Historical Studies Journal is published after a peer review process conducted by a graduate student editorial board and is advised by a faculty board. For graduate students interested in learning more about publishing, working on the editorial board provides insight into selection, editing, and publishing. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to this year’s graduate student editorial board, which features Kira Boatright, Summer Carper, Eber Condrell, Brianna Matson, Jon Perkins, and Kolette Young. Thanks are also in order for the Historical Studies Journal faculty board: Dr. Dale Stahl, Dr. Gabriel Finkelstein, and Dr. Xiaofei Gao.
Lukas Rasmussen
Editor-in-Chief – CU Denver Historical Studies Journal, Vol 41.
