Best American History Essays 2008

The Organization of American Historians is the largest learned society devoted to the study of American history. Since its founding in 1907, the OAH has promoted the study and teaching of the American past through its many activities. David Roediger (Editor) is the Kendrick C. Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of numerous books on American history.

• "Chinese Exclusion, Photography, and the Development of U.S. Immigration Policy" by Anna Pelger-Gordon * "From Crop Lien to Contract Farming: The Roots of Agribusiness in the American South, 1929-1939" by Monica Richmond Gisolfi * "Rocking the Cradle: Downsizing the New England Family" by Gloria L. Main * "Exceptionalism and Globalism: Travel Writers and the Nineteenth-Century American West" by David M. Wrobel * "Class War? Class Struggles during the American Revolution in Virginia" by Michael McDonnell * "'I have . . . a lot of work to do': Cotton Mill Work and Women's Culture in Matoaca, Virginia, 1888-95" by Beth English * "'It is His First Offense. We Might As Well Let Him Go': Homicide and Criminal Justice in Chicago, 1875-1920" by Jeffrey S. Adler * "Educating the Eye: Body Mechanics and Streamlining in the United States, 1925-1950" by Carma Gordon * "The Grape Vine Telegraph: Rumors and Confederate Persistence" by Jason Phillips * "'They Are Ancestral Homelands': Race, Place, and Politics in Cold War Native America, 1945-1961" by Paul C. Rosier