This special panel debrief edition of the Journal of American History Podcast features a conversation on "New Carceral Histories: Legacies of Punishment before the Era of Mass Incarceration," held at the 2024 OAH Conference on American History.

In this panel, Maile Arvin, Abigail Kahn, Halee Robinson, Derek Taira, and Walter Stern continue their important conversation about ethics and violence in historical research, generated from the papers they presented on this panel. These works critically consider both how we conceive of the carceral state and the purposes of punishment in the era prior to mass incarceration—to extract labor, to assimilate, to destroy kinship ties, and to construct the boundaries of who belongs in the United States empire. Besides providing a temporally distinct perspective, these works unite historiographical traditions that are often siloed—histories of incarceration, colonialism, and education—and, in doing so, highlight the interdependence of the penal system, American empire, and formal schooling in defining and enforcing the boundaries of belonging in American society. By being in service to disenfranchised voices in history, and highlighting the interconnectedness of incarceration, education, and colonialism, this panel seeks to inform and recast current debates on incarceration and abolitionism.

This panel was endorsed by the OAH Committee on the Status of ALANA Historians and ALANA Histories, OAH–JAAS Collaborative Committee, WHA, and SHGAPE.

Read more about the session here: https://www.oah.org/conferences/oah24/sessions/session/?id=5220

Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923

X: @theJAMhistory Facebook: The Journal of American History

This Blogcast Episode features Carleigh Beriont's article, "On the Map," first published in Process: A Blog for American History on December 12, 2023.

In this episode, Beriont recovers the hidden history of the Marshall Islands, and how this area "has been central to U.S. security and military interests since the Second World War." She explains how the United States nuclear testing and resulting destruction of Bikini Atoll, its people, and the surrounding area has had lasting political and environmental impacts.

Read the Blog here: https://www.processhistory.org/on-the-map-beriont/

Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923

X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History

In this episode of the Journal of American History Podcast Stephen Andrews speaks with Britain Hopkins about her article, "The Origins of the Student Loan Industry in the United States: Richard Cornuelle, United Student Aid Funds, and the Creation of the Guaranteed Student Loan Program," which appeared in the March 2024 issue of the Journal of American History. Through a consideration of key legislation and actors, Britain contributes to understandings of the origins of the student loan industry and student loan indebtedness in the United States. The article highlights how private organizations and actors—such as the American Bankers Association and the Volker Fund—worked with the Johnson and Nixon administrations to establish student loans as a primary means of funding higher education. These private-federal partnerships increasingly sought to commodify student loans on financial markets, thereby tethering access to higher education to previously excluded groups to market incorporation. The article thereby identifies the origins of student loan indebtedness as a legacy of the Johnson administration’s Great Society agenda. Stephen and Britain discuss neoliberalism, debt, and behind the scenes creation of this article. They also the historicize student debt and the complex, multifaceted issues that historically constructed the current student debt crisis.

Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaad351

Music: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band's Mabel's Dream, 1923

X: @thejamhist Facebook: The Journal of American History

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