Rachel Shelden

About the Author

Rachel Shelden is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma and the author of Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2013).

Author Archive Page

Party Nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Traditional Al Smith Dinner (Photo courtesy of NPR)

Dinner Table Conversation

October 25, 2016By Rachel Shelden

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner and American social politics

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.

The Story of America in Twelve Cemeteries

Our Past is Written in Stone

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 [...]