Journal

The Spring 2022 issue of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society is now available. The Journal, the scholarly publication of the ISHS, is published quarterly and is a benefit of membership in the Illinois State Historical Society. Each issue includes articles, essays, book reviews, and documents about history, literature, art technology, law, and other subjects related to Illinois and the Midwest. Visit our Membership page for membership options and information. Click on the “Read More” button to see a list of articles and reviews included in this issue.

Volume 110, No. 2 of the Journal opens with three studies that about events that dramatically shaped the state’s nearly two hundred year history. In "Pocahontas, Uleleh, and Hononegah: The Archetype of the American Indian Princess," Dan Blumlo explores the trope of the Indian Princess–who intervenes at a crucial moment to save a white man from certain death at the hands of savage Indians–evolved and became central to nineteenth and twentieth century conceptions of American nationalism.

In "Jim Crow Comes to Central Illinois: Racial Segregation in the Twentieth Century Bloomington-Normal," Mark Wyman and John W. Muirhead review the persistence of racial segregation in Illinois and the struggles of blacks and sympathetic whites to combat it.

In our final article, "The Decline of Decatur," longtime Illinois historian Roger Biles presents a timely account of what we today call globalization, and why its history matters so much to residents of countless Rustbelt cities like Decatur.