It's recently been estimated that Americans spend $19.5 billion on Valentine's Day. Whether you go all in or prefer to recast the holiday as "Singles Awareness Day," people have been baring their heart and soul through love notes for centuries. In early America, as long as quill, ink, and paper were on hand -- one …
Five on a Friday: Podcasts for a Varied Life
I am addicted to podcasts. Much like the earlier 2000s were the golden age of blogging, it seems that today we are living in a golden age of audio. Podcasts crept into my life very unassumingly. I can’t even name the first one I ever listened to. But like the Netflix-induced binging of television series …
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Emigration as Epidemic: Perspectives on the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Highlands
In our digital age, the contagion metaphor is often part of the language we use regarding the exchange of information. The most popular videos go “viral” online. We share culturally-relevant "memes" via social media that spread like the common cold. But such metaphors are nothing new, especially when applied to migration. As medical knowledge developed in …
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Reading early America (for fun!)
I am a reader. Since I was very young, I’ve had an affinity for libraries, for the smell of books, the crispness of their pages, and the music made by the words inside. As a historian, my career as a scholar compels me to read - both widely and deeply - in order to understand …
Whose Milk? Changing US Attitudes toward Maternal Breastfeeding
Earlier this year, delegates from around the world met in Geneva, Switzerland for the World Health Assembly. Debates emerged around the topic of promoting maternal breastfeeding and sparked a heated confrontation between the United States and the nation of Ecuador. Looking for some historical context to the "Breast is Best" campaign? Read my latest article …
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