Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Fall 2016

Volume 109, Number 3

This issue offers three articles covering diverse aspects of Illinois' history. In "Illinois Germans and the Coming of the Civil War: Reshaping Ethnic Identity," Christina Bearden-White uses German-language sources to examine the complex issue of German identity in the Prairie State during the mid-nineteenth century.

Ian Rocksborough-Smith's article, "'I had gone in there thinking I was going to be a cultural worker': Richard Durham, Oscar Brown, Jr. and the United Packinghouse Workers Association in Chicago," presents a fascinating analysis of the Cold War-era careers of Oscar Brown, Jr. and Richard Durham, two prominent Chicago-based African American political activists.

Finally, Michael Sublett's "Downstate: Illinois' Peripheral Other," presents the etymology of that well-known Prairie State term. Employing the categories of core and periphery, which rose to prominence in social science and historical writing during the 1970s, Sublett traces the evolution and application of the downstate moniker.

Articles

"Illinois Germans and the Coming of the Civil War: Reshaping Ethnic Identity"
Christina Bearden-White

"'I had gone in there thinking I was going to be a cultural worker': Richard Durham, Oscar Brown, Jr. and the United Packinghouse Workers Association in Chicago"
Ian Rocksborough-Smith

"Downstate: Illinois' Peripheral Other"
Michael Sublett

Book Reviews

Politics, Faith, and the Making of American Judaism. By Peter Adams.
Reviewed by Allan Amanik

Herndon on Lincoln: Letters. By William H. Herndon, edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis.
Reviewed by Robert McColley

Empty Sleeves: Amputation in the Civil War South. By Brian Craig Miller.
Reviewed by Daniel William Farrell

Before the Ivy: The Cubs' Golden Age in Pre-Wrigley Chicago. By Laurent Pernot.
Reviewed by Richard Kiefer

Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler: The Life and Times of a Piano Virtuoso. By Beth Abelson Macleod.
Reviewed by Amy Helene Forss

Coming of Age in Chice 1893 World's Fair and the Coalescence of American Anthropology. Edited by Curtis M. Hinsley and David. R. Wilcox.
Reviewed by Roger Biles

The Black Musician and the White City: Race and Music in Chicago, 1900-1967. By Amy Absher.
Reviewed by Perry Duis

Cover

Richard Durham writing Destination Freedom, 1949. Courtesy of Richard Durham Papers, Vivian Harsh Collection, Chicago Public Library.