Joseph M. Thompson

About the Author

Joseph M. Thompson is a doctoral candidate in the University of Virginia’s Corcoran Department of History. His dissertation, “Sounding Southern: Music, Militarism, and the Making of the Sunbelt South,” uses popular music to analyze the cultural impact of the military-industrial complex since the 1950s.

Author Archive Page

Woody Guthrie's birthplace, Okemah, Oklahoma. (via Library of Congress)

Woody Guthrie and the Making of the “Folk”

July 14, 2016By Joseph M. Thompson

Woody Guthrie’s iconic status is due to how he represents the “folk” in folk music.

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Bernie Sanders in the Boutwell Auditorium

Bernie Sanders in the Boutwell Auditorium (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Progressivism in the South

January 26, 2016By Joseph M. Thompson

A long history of progressivism in the South may buoy the Sanders campaign

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Group of young white men turn a car on its side during Detroit riots of 1943

Rioting: An American Tradition

Looking at the rioters in Baltimore, or any other place, in isolation misses the point.

Gate_House,_Cemetery,_Gettysburg

The Story of America in Twelve Cemeteries

Our Past is Written in Stone

Julia Ward Howe

Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day

Mothers’ Day did not start as a way to encourage people to be nice to their mothers, but as an impassioned effort by women to end war forever.

The Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862

Exploring an important step toward the abolition of slavery in the United States

Bruce Gillers - October 13, 2021:
The Boy Scout Council in Chinle Arizona was the name of the [...]

Carolyn Marvin - February 11, 2021:
Example: no proof of any silk dress...part of the poem written later. [...]

KateThomas - December 8, 2020:
Thank you. This has given me a greater insight into the historian [...]

Michael C. Lucas - August 5, 2020:
The American Government did not make a deal for Forty Acres and [...]