The Society for the History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is delighted to announce the appointment of Benjamin H. Johnson of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Robert D. Johnston of the University of Illinois at Chicago as the new co-editors for The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. This appointment follows a national search for a successor to Alan Lessoff of Illinois State University, who has served as editor since 2004 and has done so much to make the journal an influential and stimulating source of scholarship on the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.
Wendy Gamber (Indiana University) chaired the search committee. She was assisted by committee members Lloyd Ambrosius (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Julia Irwin (University of South Florida), Kate Masur (Northwestern University), and Phillip VanderMeer (Arizona State University). I am grateful to them for their excellent work on this search, and grateful also to the many scholars who applied for the position.
Benjamin H. Johnson and Robert D. Johnston each bring an impressive record of scholarship to their new positions as co-editors. Johnson's primary areas of research and teaching include environmental history, North American borders, and western history. His first book, Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans (2003) offered a new interpretation of the origins of the Mexican American civil rights movement. Through an account of a failed rebellion and the massive racial violence that it provoked, the book argued that this movement was born out of a conscious rejection of statelessness and an embrace of aspects of the larger political culture of Progressivism by ethnic Mexican leaders in Texas. He continued his interest in Mexican American history in Bordertown: The Odyssey of an American Place (2008), a collaboration with photographer Jeffrey Gusky, and in journal articles about the ties between Mexican American politics and postrevolutionary Mexico. Johnson's other primary interest is in the social and political history of American environmentalism. His current book project is “Escaping the Dark, Gray City”: How Conservation Re-made City, Suburb, and Countryside in the Progressive Era.
Robert D. Johnston's engagement with the journal dates from the inaugural issue of 2002, which included his essay “Re-Democratizing the Progressive Era: The Politics of Progressive Era Political Historiography.” Johnston's first monograph engaged a wide variety of issues in the literature on progressivism. The Radical Middle Class: Popular Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon (2003) sought to revise—and redeem—the political legacy of middling folks throughout American history but especially during the early twentieth century. Through an exploration of the politics of direct democracy in Portland (in many ways its birthplace), Johnston sought to demonstrate the deep strains of populist democracy that informed an electoral idea that a century later has come to represent, to many, primarily an outlet for bigotry and xenophobia. Johnston more recently has published the essay on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era for Eric Foner and Lisa McGirr, eds., American History Now (2011).
In a statement about their goals for the journal, Johnson and Johnston stated: “We plan to follow the legacy of excellence laid down by the journal's first two editors, Maureen Flanagan and Alan Lessoff. The scholarship on the period from 1865 to 1920 has never been more interesting and eclectic, and we expect that the journal will continue to reflect the current vibrancy of the field. At the same time, both the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era have over the last decade become major contested icons in our public culture, with those on the left fighting against a second ‘Gilded Age,’ and those on the right contending that the roots of all American political evils stem from the reformers of ‘the Progressive Era.’ We welcome scholars to use JGAPE as a way to participate in these momentous civic discussions.”
Johnson and Johnston contemplate developing new features for the journal, including sections on public history, teaching (both K–12 and secondary), and visual media. They plan a deep engagement with historiography and anticipate including regular forums on important new books as well as classic books worth revisiting. They invite commentaries and glosses on significant primary sources, both old and new. Finally, they are open to proposals for special issues on significant topics or for other non-traditional ideas that would make the journal as lively, significant, and interesting as possible.
Johnson and Johnston's terms as co-editors will begin in August 2013. Alan Lessoff will continue to serve as co-editor, along with Johnson and Johnston, until October 2014. New manuscripts can be submitted via email in Word or RTF format to Robert Johnston at jgape@uic.edu.
