The Organization of Historical
Practice in the United States: An Overview.
The historical enterprise is
large and diverse. As a general rule, historical studies are subdivided by:
a) Chronology; b) Geography; c) Sub discipline or field
(intellectual history, international relations, women’s history, etc.); d) Themes (industrialization,
imperialism, race, class, and gender, etc.); e) Methodology (e.g.,
statistics, oral history, etc.).
Most topics will combine some combination of two or more of these categories. For example: a study of congressional voting on war measures in the U.S. Congress, 1914-1917, would combine method (statistical analysis), chronology (1914-1917), geography (U.S.), field (international relations, politics), and theme or topic (the approach of World War I).
Not surprisingly, historical studies have themselves become highly specialized, with literally hundreds of associations and other organizations involved in the production and distribution of historical knowledge. You can get a sense of this variety by visiting the home pages of the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians, where you may not only find extensive information about the ongoing work of these two important organizations, but also links to many other historical associations. For a list of some of these associations, see the Affiliated Society's page of the American Historical Association at: http://www.theaha.org/affiliates/. Note that some of these "affiliate" organizations, for example the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), are themselves made up of many other historical bodies.
Much historical investigation is also conducted by various centers and institutes, some of which are listed on the links page of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) at: http://www.oah.org/announce/links.html
Historical work is also conducted in many, many venues - not only in colleges and universities, but in state, local and national museums, archives, parks and historical sites, editing rooms, film studios, government agencies, private corporations, non-profit organizations and so on. The practice of history outside the academy constitutes a part of what is called Public History.
You may also get a sense of the variety of historical practice by visiting H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences Online. H-Net hosts more than 100 specialized discussion groups. The home pages of many of these networks also include rich collections of links to other important online resources.
The Many Varieties of American History
To give you some idea of the
many ways of doing history, I went to the pages of the Journal of American History
(available on the Proquest General database for recent issues and on the JSTOR
database for issues published before 2001), which until recently published a section
on “Recent Scholarship” that lists some of the books, articles and
dissertations that have recently appeared. (This is now available online
via the History Cooperative at:
http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/rs/. I urge you to browse this
section, noting the variety of topics and approaches, as well as the wide variety of journals in which work
by historians is published. Keep in mind that this list does not include the many,
many
books that are reviewed in the book review section of each issue of the
JAH, which I also urge you to browse. Keep in mind that the JAH categories are very fluid and that many
works might be placed in several categories. And remember, this is only U.S.
history…it doesn’t include the rest of the world!
Below are some comments on each of the categories listed by the JAH which I prepared for a meeting of prospective Major Seminar students. In these comments I have also noted some of my own interests, which focus especially on the recent (post 1945) era. To learn more about issues in which I am particularly interested, please consult the syllabi for two recent courses:
History 207: The United States since 1945: http://american.edu/bgriff/H207web/about207/Schedule.htm;
Honors 300, a version of my new course on “Postmodern America” at: http://american.edu/bgriff/EdgeWeb/edgesyl2.html#schedule.
Note, finally, that there are specialized journals (often more than one) and professional associations in almost all of these fields. If you are interested in learning more about these fields, you should browse the relevant journals, many of which, though by no means all, are available online via JSTOR, Project Muse, Proquest, OCLC, etc. You can also visit the web sites of the relevant scholarly association or the relevant discussion networks listed at H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences.
Some of the many varieties of U.S. History (based on Journal of American History categories):
African Americans: A recent major seminar paper explored School desegregation in Washington. A recent AU MA student worked on Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court ruling which overturned Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law. Another AU graduate student researched the 1968 riots in Washington that followed the murder of Martin Luther King. I am especially interested in the history of the Civil Rights movement and the struggle over “diversity” and “multiculturalism” in the more recent, “post-civil rights” era. A AU MA student recently completed a study of high school Marching Bands in the D.C. area; a senior wrote a study of Jazz in Baltimore, situating the history of Jazz within the African-American community in Baltimore.
Agricultural and rural history – from peasants to yeoman farming to agribusiness, changes in rural life under the impact of markets, modernization and technological change. There is a good deal of interest in the growth of agricultural markets in the 19th century (and the transformation this development affected in the lives of rural America). I’m particularly interested in the depopulation of rural America over the last 30 or 40 years, as the number of farmers and farm families has continued to decline. I’m also interested in what might be considered the other side of the coin – recent migration from older cities and suburbs that transforms rural areas into exurban settlements. Here, as in many other areas, social science literature - sociology in particular - will also be useful.
Business and Economics – this includes the history of large corporations, but also work (labor history) and consumption (social and cultural history). The new City Museum holds the papers of Woodward and Lothrop, which offers a window on the rise (and fall) of the great urban Department Stores of the 19th and 20th centuries, including their marketing and employment practices. One might explore, for example, how "Woodies" employment practices reflected and reinforced prevailing notions about gender and what was appropriate work for women. I am especially interested in the field of political economy, which seeks to explore the intersection and interplay of business and government.
Civil War and Reconstruction - A recent major seminar paper focused on a maverick southern general, who proposed freeing slaves and recruiting them into the Confederate army. The National Archives holds the letters of newly freed slaves, which helps us understand the real meaning’s of emancipation. Many of these letters have now been published by the Southern Freemen Project at UMCP. Professor Alan Kraut is the Department’s leading expert on the Civil War.
Colonial and Revolutionary Period – Washington, D.C. is a wonderful place to discover the history of our nation's colonial past. Professors Andrew Lewis and Kate Haulman can provide excellent advice on topics and sources.
Early National Period – From Washington to Jackson. However, much of the most interesting work in this period has abandoned a narrow focus on presidents and politics, examining instead the economic, social and cultural life of the early Republic. For topics in this period, talk to AU Professor Andrew Lewis, whose scholarship includes religion, science and early American conceptions of nature; and/or to Professor Kate Haulman, whose interests include gender and culture in the early Republic.
Education - The study of education at all levels can be considered
a branch of social, cultural and/or intellectual history, depending on how you
approach it. Last semester, a group of students in a history course
prepared a study of the founding of the Washington College of Law, which of
course was also an example of legal history and, since WCL was originally
founded as a women’s law school, a part of the history of women. Check out
this amazing web site at:
http://www.wcl.american.edu/history/. Not long ago, a
Major Seminar student produced a paper on kindergardens and the history of early
childhood education, an area in which Professor Katharine Norris is an expert.
Environment – AU Professor Andrew
Lewis is a student of the environment, he’s taught a course on conservation and
his research, as I’ve said, focuses on how we think about the natural world.
(This is, of course, cultural and intellectual history, as well.) The history
of the environment might focus on changing relationships with the natural
environment (as when native Americans gave way to European settlers or when
small family farms gave way to agribusiness), with how the “public lands” were
distributed to individuals and corporations during the 19th century,
with the impact of pesticides in the 20th century (e.g., Rachel
Carson, Silent Spring), or on politics and public policy in the
progressive era, the New Deal, the 60s and 70s, or in our own more recent
period, when many of the environmental regulations adopted during the 1960s and
1970s have been significantly weakened. SIS Professors Paul Wopner and
Robin Broad have been exploring the impact of globalization on the environment
and might also be good resources. You might also consult with Professor
David Culver, who helped create AU's environmental studies program.
Family – How have families changed over time? How did “childhood” come to be socially constructed? Or, later yet, “adolescence”? It has only been in the last century that adolescence has been viewed as a separate phase of life. Were the 1950s really a “golden era” of family values? Or, as Stephanie Coontz and others argue, is that a myth perpetrated by social conservatives? How has the meaning of family changed in recent decades marked by rising divorce rates, blended families, gay marriage, etc. Former AU Professor Laura Kamoie has written a book the reconstructs the lives of a prominent Virginia family during its transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy and is an excellent resource for “family” studies, especially in the 19th century. Some years ago, a major seminar student began a project on the reconstruction of the history of a Maryland family based on what an archeological dig revealed about their daily life over the years. One of the most renown studies of early America, based on the diary of a single woman, is Laurel Ulrich Thatcher's A Midwife's Tale. More recently, NYU historian Martha Hodes published a study of a New England woman who worked in the mills, lost her husband in the civil war, and later married a black sea captain from the Caribbean. Such studies are sometimes called "micro-histories."
Film – This is a field within business history, within social and cultural history, or in combination with almost any other field of study. It focuses on how things are represented. Films may be read in many ways – how were ethnic Americans represented in the radio programs of the 1940s, how were African-American’s depicted in D.W. Griffith’s racist Birth of a Nation, how were the concerns of the Cold War era reflected in films as dissimilar as On the Waterfront, High Noon or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In what ways did these representations reflect social values and attitudes? What effect did they have? What did individual Americans take away from these movies (not everyone, after all, “sees” a film the same way). A recent Major Seminar paper explored the cinema verite work of documentary film maker D.A. Pennebaker, whose recent works include The War Room and Startup.com., and whose earlier works included such classics as Primary and Don’t Look Back. A recent MA student wrote a thesis on the portrayal of African-Americans in Film Noir.
Gay & Lesbian History – The recent Supreme Court decision overturning Texas’ anti-sodomy law was based in part on historical studies that showed that the criminalization of homosexuality was a relatively recent phenomenon. Historians are now investigating a wide range of topics involving same sex relationships. I am especially interested in the emergence of gay communities during and after World War II and in the rise of the “gay rights” movement in the 1970s and 1980s. An AU graduate student has recently completed a paper on a Washington, D.C. church that has ministered to gays. AU History PhD. and SOC Professor Roger Streitmatter has written extensively in this field.
Gender and Sexuality – Women’s history, with its insistence that “the personal is political,” has opened up huge new areas of investigation as well as new ways of examining older topics: Professor Kate Haulman teaches women's history. Professor Eileen Findlay has written an outstanding book on working class Puerto Rican women and the imposition of middle class and patriarchal standards of behavior. Professor Pam Nadell has published a fine book on the emergence of women Rabbis. I am interested in the history of the modern (e.g., second wave) women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the blurring of gender in our more recent, “postmodern” and, according to some, “post-feminist” era.
Immigration, Ethnicity and Internal Migration – this is a field that includes the original European settlement of North America; the successive “waves” of immigration that followed (including the new, so-called fourth wave of the past several decades); internal immigration – the so-called Great Migration of African Americans into the urban North in the early 20th century and, again, during and immediately after WWII; as well as the parallel development of southern White migration in shaping the politics and culture of mid-twentieth century cities such as Baltimore. More importantly, scholars are beginning to think about migration outside of a narrowly America-centric model, one that looks at a variety if diasporas of Jews, Africans, Chinese, Spanish speaking peoples and so on. Professor Alan Kraut is one of the countries leading historians of immigration and ethnicity. Professor Eileen Findlay works on diasporic movements, especially of Spanish speaking peoples.
Indians/Native Americans – Professor Andrew Lewis is a good resource for the study of American Indians. A recent graduate paper focused on a native American woman, married to a an English trader, who emerged as a powerful figure in trade and diplomacy between native Americans, the French, the British and the Americans in late 18th century New York. The paper combined women’s history, native American history and colonial history, with an exploration of a “borderland” between competing European and native American “empires.”
Intellectual history – has enjoyed something of a revival in recent years not so much as the “history of ideas,” but as part of post modernist efforts to understand the role of symbols and representation in our culture. One might profitably examine an idea (say, the idea of historical relativity examined by Peter Novick in The Noble Dream), or a thinker (such as “neo-orthodox” theologian Reinhold Niebuhr), or the debate over a particular issue.
International Relations – Sometimes also referred to as Diplomatic history or Foreign Affairs, the study of international relations has traditionally focused on relations between and among nations -- on trade, commerce, diplomacy and, of course, war. All of these continue to be very lively topics. However, recent work has sought to get around the dominance of the nation state in our thinking by focusing on trade, migration, intellectual exchange, and the role of non governmental bodies. There has also been a tremendous interest in the role of culture in shaping international relations. Much of this owes to the work of the late Edward Said, who in Orientalism and other works, showed how French and British tourists, travel writers and others constructed a view of what is now called “the Middle East,” but which was then often referred to as the Orient. A recent book on the origins of the war in Vietnam, Mark Bradley’s Imagining Vietnam, traces the role of such culturally based perceptions in shaping U.S. policies toward Southeast Asia. Newly appointed Associate Professor Max Paul Friedman Professor is a leader among the new and younger generation of diplomatic historians whose work crosses national boundaries and which incorporates social and cultural history into the history of international relations. Peter Kuznick has published on both Cold War culture and on the closely related theme of “nuclear” culture and is an important resource. I have written extensively on the Cold War and its impact on American politics and culture, including the role of Senator Joe McCarthy. An interesting topic might be to examine changing assessments of McCarthy and McCarthyism over the past 40-50 years. I am interested in the Cold War and Vietnam, and on the ways in which “globalization” has characterized more than a century of American (and world) history. I have also written on the new cultural history of the Cold War. AU Professor Anna Nelson is a specialist U.S. diplomatic history, intelligence and national security policy.
Labor and Working-Class history – This includes the history of organized labor, but also of the culture of work and of the communities in which workers lived. Historians published a particularly rich collection of studies in the 1970s and early 1980s, most of which focused on industrial work in the urban north. More recent studies have focused on service industries, including airline stewardesses and waitresses. Recent work has also focused on the ways in which workers have also been consumers. See, for example, Lizabeth Cohen's highly regarded Making a New Deal (1990). TA few years ago a major seminar student did a paper on a coal mine disaster which combined elements of labor history, public policy, the history of the coal industry and the history of a small West Virginia town. I am especially interested in the changing character of work as the U.S. economy has shifted from manufacturing to services, and on the role of work in the so-called “new economy.” What happens to work when it moves from the factory assembly line to the office cubicle. An interesting paper might use the cartoons of Dilbert as windows to the world of white collar work in the new economy.
Legal and Constitutional History – Older issues, such as the role of Chief Justice John Marshall, the Dred Scott decision, or changing interpretations of the interstate commerce clause, have given way to newer issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. There has also been a revival of interest in the Brown decision, both as a legal issues and in terms of its implementation (or, perhaps more accurately, the retreat from its implementation.) Traditional constitutional studies trace the history of Court decisions. Legal history embraces much more, including the interface of law with business, government and social life, as well as the role of lawyers, judges and courts as social and political institutions. Historians bump up against legal scholars in a warren of competing approaches, including the “law and economics” approach that has grown out of the conservative, University of Chicago school pioneered by Milton Friedman and others and leftist "critical legal theory" (a postmodernist twist of understanding the law). Students conducting research in this area will find resources in both history and law journals and potential mentors at the Washington College of Law.
Mass Communications – This is a huge field of study that includes advertising, books, newspapers and magazines, radio and television, as well as the telegraph, telephone and internet. It can be approached as business history or as social and cultural history. It is a very interdisciplinary field, in which the work of historians overlaps with the work of scholars in media and mass communications, sociology, American studies and so on. Two examples: a few years ago, a student in major seminar did a paper on how the press treated a statement by Hillary Clinton (“I guess I could stay home and bake cookies.”) during the 1992 campaign. Professor Pat Aufderheide in SOC has written an important book on the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and should be considered a resource, as may be other faculty in SOC. See also, Film History (above).
Material Culture and Architecture – Again, a large field that overlaps with archeology, architecture and urban planning. The year before last, a major seminar student began a project on the reconstruction of the history of a Maryland family based on what an archeological dig revealed about their daily life over the years. Her study could also be categorized as family history and/or colonial history. Washington is an especially rich source for the study of material culture, which dominates the approach to history of the National Museum of American History and other Smithsonian Institutions.
Men and Masculinity – I would probably include this section as part of “Gender and Sexuality” (see above), but the JAH lists it separately. One of our recent graduate students has written an important study of the emergence of the male “bread winner” role in the early 19th century, showing that a role that we used to imagine as “natural” and permanent was in fact a relatively recent product of early industrialization. Several imaginative recent studies of popular culture have focused on what scholars see as the phenomena of “re-masculinization” of American culture in 1980s films, focusing, among others, on the films of Sylvester Stallone and other action heroes. Sexual identity, m
Military History – though military history has somewhat fallen out of favor in recent years, it is still a fascinating topic and there is much in the National Archives and in the various local and nearby centers for the study of military history to provide material for many, many books and articles. For example, David Marannis, in his recently published They Marched Into Sunlight, uses “after action reports” from the National Archives to reconstruct a key battle in the Vietnam War. His book tells the story of that battle, juxtaposed against the history of the anti-war movement in Madison, Wisconsin. A recent book, Home to War, tells the story of the veterans who protested the Vietnam War (including John Kerry). World War II was the largest war in world history – it can be approached not only from the perspective of the United States, but from the perspective of many of the people’s caught up in its horror – from Europe to Africa to Asia. You must think of war not only as military history, but also in terms of its impact on thought (nuclear culture), economics (WWII played a key role in the militarization of the American economy, the forging of what Dwight Eisenhower would call the “military industrial complex), and society (WWII played an important role in women’s history, in the struggle of African-Americans for equality, and in the emergence of gay and lesbian communities, as well.) AU's senior European historian, Richard Breitman, is one of the nation’s leading experts on the Holocaust, the history of which is intertwined with the history of World War II. Note also the work of Professors Friedman and Nadell.
Music – Another huge topic, including the history of all kinds of music and its role, from classical to folk to pop to hip hop and so on. Here, too, the work is interdisciplinary and historians work along side of folklorists, sociologists, musicologists and others. Larry Levine’s study of so-called “classical music” in the late 19th century (High Brow, Low Brow) suggested that what was once a relatively popular music form was captured by cultural elites, who turned it into a decorative appendage of the metropolitan upper classes. Scholars have used country music to trace the urbanization of the white working class. Many scholars have studied African-American music, from gospel to blues, to extend our understanding of African-American history. (Recently retired AU historian Bernice Reagon was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, a group that emerged from the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960s, and later founded Sweet Honey and the Rock.) Historians have also studied the rise of Rock n Roll, hip hop, and punk, among other genres. Recent studies of so-called “world music” have contributed to our understanding of globalization. I’m especially interested in the rise of rock n roll in the 1950s, country music, the “folk revival” of the 1960s and the music of Bob Dylan.
Politics - The study of politics encompasses a great deal. To cite just a few, studies may focus on local, state or national politics, on Congress, the Presidency, the Courts, , on parties and/or elections, on the role of interest groups and lobbyists, on the role of the media, or on a range of public policy issues from colonial times to the 21st century). AU Professor Allen Lichtman is a historian of the presidency and presidential elections, who is currently writing a book on American conservatism in the 20th century. My own work trespasses on many fields – on domestic politics, international relations, business and economics. I’ve written on the impact of the Cold War on American politics and in particular on Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism. I’m also very interested in what some have called political economy, on the interrelationships between economics and politics (how was the political economy of the post WWII era was constructed, and what befell it in the 1970s and 1980s). My current work focuses very broadly on the last half century or so and the what some believe has been a shift from the modern to the postmodern, a topic that includes the impact of science and technology (computers, bioscience), the rise of the so-called “new economy,” globalization including 9/11, changing perceptions of identity, and what some are experiencing as the increasing speed and fluidity of contemporary life.
Public History and Memory - The study of how we remember and commemorate the past, this is an especially exciting field given our location in Washington. Public History encompasses both the work of historians outside the academy (in museums, historic sites, film studios, editing projects, etc.), as well as the study of historical consciousness (how we remember and think about the past). Professor Kathy Franz directs AU's growing Public History program and is tremendous source of ideas for projects. Many other AU faculty are also conversant with the field, including Professors Kraut (who was an advisory to the Ellis Island project), Breitman (who has worked closely with the Holocaust Museum on a number of important projects), Lichtman (a CNN "talking head," who also serves as an expert witness in redistricting cases), and Nelson (who, served on the Commission to declassify the papers from the Kennedy assassination. A few years ago, a major seminar student did an outstanding paper on the creation of the Navy War Memorial. An AU graduate student recently did a project on how the emancipation of slaves has been memorialized in various public monuments.
Race – from slavery to civil rights to contemporary debates over affirmative action, race has remained one of the flashpoints of American history. Historians are asking how race is constructed; how, for example, 19th century immigrants who were first believed to be of a separate races later became to be classified as “white.” An AU graduate student recently completed a dissertation on how Americans during the Civil War employed the history of the Haitian Revolution (in which black slaves overthrew the French ruled colony) during debates over the Civil War. Another graduate student has been examining an interracial community in rural Virginia in the late 19th and 20th centuries. A major seminar student has explored the 1968 riots in Washington that followed the murder of Martin Luther King.
Religion –a major issue in native American history and in the settling of North America by Europeans, the history of Salem witchcraft, of the great awakenings, of the battles over fundamentalism that began in the early 20th century but which seem to have reawakened in our own time. The year before last, one of the major seminar students did a paper on the life and death of James Reeb, a Unitarian-Universalist minister who was murdered in Selma, Alabama during the height of the civil rights movement in that city. Professor Andrew Lewis is a good source on the history of religion in the colonial and early national periods. Professor Pam Nadell is an authority on American Judaism. Professor Lichtman has just completed a study that focuses on the religious right.
Science and Medicine - This is another large field. Students studying in this area, have access to AU Professor Alan Kraut, a historian of medicine and of public health and to the library of the National Institutes of Health (see below). The year before last, a student in major seminar wrote a fascinating study of the evolution of lower-leg prosthesis.
Social and Cultural History – The study of how people live (social
history), as well as the web of culture (assumptions, images, norms, practices)
within which people operate. Social history grew enormously during the 1970s
and 1980s. Cultural history grew rapidly during the late 1980s and 1990s. Many
of the fields that the JAH lists separately fall within the purview of social
and cultural history, and you can approach almost any topic from a cultural
perspective.
Social Welfare and Public Health - This large category overlaps with politics and public policy, as well as social history. Students pursuing topics in this area can take advantage of the tremendous holdings of the Medical Library of the National Institutes for Health (NIH). AU Professor Alan Kraut has written a biography of a public health official who fought to eliminate pellagra. An AU graduate students is embarking on a comparative study of health care policies in the United States and Canada.
Sports and Recreation – This is another large field, which includes the history of sport and leisure. It overlaps with business history, social and cultural history, and urban history. A few years ago, a major seminar student combined sport history, Native American studies and Popular culture in a paper that focused on the rise of Indian-owned casinos. More recently, major seminar students have written on the Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics; another wrote on the Philadelphia SPAHs, a Jewish basketball team that later morphed into the Philadelphia Warriors (now Golden State Warriors).
Technology, Industry, Transportation – The study of technology overlaps with the history of industrialization, science, education, and communication, as well as military, political and social history. (Yes, "things" have a politics built into them, along with the hardware.) Professor Kathy Franz, who has written on automobile "culture" in the early 20th century is an specialist in the social history of technology. Professor Peter Kuznick is a historian of science and technology who has written on the 1939 World’s Fare. He is currently working on a study of scientists in the debates over the atomic bomb. I am especially interested in the impact of new information technologies in the late 20th century.
Theory and Methodology – In earlier decades, historians argued over, among other things, the role of statistics and quantitative history; for the past decade. More recent debates have focused on the "turn" toward language and/or culture and the challenge of postmodernist theorizing.
Urban and Suburban History – This field focuses on the history of cities and suburbs, the impact of the automobile, architecture, the built environment in which we live. Scholars working in this area overlap with the work of social and cultural historians of many stripes, as well as the work of architects and urban planners. The emergence of GIS (geographical information systems) is bringing new sophistication to such studies. Last year, one of the students in Major Seminar prepared a paper on Baltimore’s “inner harbor,” among the first of the new "urban theme parks" that are popping up throughout the country. The year before last, a major seminar student did a paper on Levittown, one of the first of the new, post WWII suburbs, showing how private development and public policies combined to produce racially exclusive suburbs, a development of enormous importance for postwar America.
Visual and Performing Arts - Until recently, the history of the visual and performing arts has been neglected by historians, though this is now rapidly changing. Historians, in the past highly text oriented, have begun incorporating visual artifacts into their study of the past. In the process, their work has overlapped with the work of traditional art historians, architectural historians and many others. Professor Franz offers a course on "visual and material culture."
Women and Femininity – Women’s history underwent tremendous growth in the 1970s and early 1980s and in turn gave added momentum to a host of other studies, including social history, cultural history the history of gender and sexuality, gay studies and so on. Even such traditional "masculine" fields such as politics, diplomacy and war have in recent years been examined and re-visioned in light of the insights and approaches generated by women's history. Professors Kate Haulman, Pam Nadell, Eileen Findlay and Allen Lichtman, among others, can all provide resources for the study of women's history.
Regional Studies - JAH also breaks down studies by region, curiously listing in this issue only three: the Midwest, the South, and the West. It might well have added other regions - the West Coast, New England, the Middle States or even sub-regions such as Appalachia or the Chesapeake. Obviously, most regional studies overlap with work in other fields.
The JAH does not include a category for state and local history. However, there are many state historical societies, most of which publish journals devoted to state and local history. Many of these societies are members of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).
Remember: These categories capture only partially the many varieties of historical study. And they are limited to the history of the United States alone. There is a big world out there and writing its history is a large and exciting challenge. Equally important, you should expect to find many relevant publications in the disciplines of law, government, economics, anthropology, sociology and other social sciences, as well as in specialized disciplines such as art history, the history of architecture, etc.