with Patrick O'Connor

In this episode of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast, Boyd Cothran talks with historian Patrick O’Connor about his new book, The Political Reconstruction of American Tobacco, 1862–1933. Rather than treating tobacco primarily as a moral problem or a corporate success story, O’Connor approaches it as a window onto the making of the modern American state. Beginning with Civil War–era taxation and moving through the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the conversation traces how tobacco became deeply embedded in federal governance—through revenue collection, market regulation, inspection and classification regimes, agricultural science, and expert bureaucracy. Along the way, we discuss how taxation helped create national markets, how “quality” and knowledge functioned as forms of power, how growers were disciplined through debt and market institutions, and how Progressive Era expertise reshaped both agriculture and state capacity. The episode also reflects on why tobacco proved so difficult to regulate or dismantle in the early twentieth century—and what this history can tell us about the long-standing challenges of governing harmful but profitable commodities.

114: The Political Reconstruction of American Tobacco

with Hilary N. Green 

Cathleen talks with Dr. Hilary N. Green, whose most recent book, Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War, was published by Fordham University Press in 2025. <a href="https://fordhampress.com/unforgettable-sacrifice-hb-9781531508531.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://fordhampress.com/unforgettable-sacrifice-hb-9781531508531.html</a>An exciting addition to scholarship on Civil War memory with its focus on African American traditions of memorialization, the book also offers historians important methodological tools. For Dr. Green's public history projects, seeWith Their Hands: <a href="https://www.davidson.edu/news/2025/10/21/memorial-brings-unacknowledged-into-story" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.davidson.edu/news/2025/10/21/memorial-brings-unacknowledged-into-story</a>Hallowed Grounds <a href="https://www.hngreenphd.com/the-hallowed-grounds-project.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.hngreenphd.com/the-hallowed-grounds-project.html</a> We also mentioned Dr. Martha Jones' Hard History project at Johns Hopkins University:<a href="https://hardhistory.jhu.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://hardhistory.jhu.edu/</a> We mentioned a number of books in our conversation including:David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Harvard UP 2001)Barbara A. Gannon, The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic (The University of North Carolina Press, 2011)Caroline Janney, Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation (University of North Carolina Press, 2013)David Silkenat, Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) Contact the host: Cathleen Cahillcdcahill@psu.edu

113 Unforgettable Sacrifice 

with Daniel Wortel-London

In this episode of The Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast, Boyd Cothran speaks with historian Daniel Wortel-London about his new book, The Menace of Prosperity, a sweeping history of New York City and the political economy of urban growth from the aftermath of the Civil War through the late twentieth century. The conversation centres on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, when New York’s leaders increasingly tied the city’s finances to real estate development, municipal debt, and rising property values. Wortel-London introduces two key concepts—social costs and fiscal imaginaries—to explain how elite-driven prosperity repeatedly generated fiscal crises, inequality, and instability, even as critics advanced alternative visions rooted in cooperation, public ownership, and democratic control of urban resources. Along the way, Boyd and Daniel discuss the 1870s fiscal crisis and fears of “monstrous growth,” Gilded Age fiscal radicals and the cooperative commonwealth, Henry George and the single tax, Progressive Era debates over municipal ownership and planning, and interwar struggles over housing and economic stabilization. The episode concludes by tracing how these late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century choices shaped the New Deal, the 1970s fiscal crisis, and contemporary debates over housing, development, and inequality in New York. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo188616978.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Menace of Prosperity is available from the University of Chicago Press</a> Contact the host:Boyd Cothran can be reached at cothran@yorku.ca

112: The Menance of Prosperity

Chasing Beauty 

There are a few people that embody a period. Isabella Stewart Gardner knew many of the the movers and shakers of the Gilded Age and lived from 1840-1924. Her story, and her compulsion to buy the art of the age, makes her a great lens through which to understand the Gilded Age. Dr. Natalie Dykstra joins the show to discuss her latest biography of Bella. Natalie Dykstra,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nataliedykstra.com/chasing-beauty-isabella-stewart-gardner-biography/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner</a>&nbsp;(2024). The webpage for Clara Endicott Sear's Fruitland Museum can be found at <a href="https://thetrustees.org/place/fruitlands-museum/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://thetrustees.org/place/fruitlands-museum/</a>

111: The Best of: Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner 

with Becky L. Diamond

In this festive episode of the Gilded Age &amp; Progressive Era podcast, we welcome back food historian Becky L. Diamond to discuss her latest book, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook. Using recipes as historical evidence, Becky takes us into nineteenth-century kitchens to explore how Christmas took shape during the Gilded Age—an era defined by inequality, immigration, and the rise of modern consumer culture. We talk about forgotten holiday treats like sugar plums, German and Central European influences on the American Christmas table, the labor behind seasonal abundance, and the challenges of translating nineteenth-century recipes for modern kitchens. Along the way, Becky shows how food opens a powerful window onto aspiration, memory, and domestic life in the Gilded Age. This episode builds on Becky’s earlier appearance on the podcast for The Gilded Age Cookbook and reminds us why food history belongs at the centre of Gilded Age and Progressive Era scholarship. ----Becky L. Diamond, <a href="https://www.beckyldiamond.com/books" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook</a> (Lyons Press) Becky L. Diamond, <a href="https://www.beckyldiamond.com/books" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Gilded Age Cookbook</a>

110: The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook

with Chris Suh

While Cathleen and I are working on new content for the podcast—lots of great episodes are on the way—we’re also taking time to revisit some of Michael’s excellent past interviews. For my second “best of” pick, I chose Episode 54, The Allure of Empire, which first aired on July 4, 2023. In this episode, Michael talks with historian Chris Suh about his award-winning book The Allure of Empire: American Encounters with Asians in the Age of Transpacific Expansion and Exclusion. Suh’s work invites us to rethink the Gilded Age and Progressive Era through the lens of empire—tracing how U.S. expansion in the Pacific intertwined with racial exclusion and the politics of belonging at home. It’s a rich, thought-provoking conversation that shows how the legacies of the Gilded Age still shape America’s place in the world today. We hope you’ll enjoy (re)listening as much as we did—and, as always, we’d love to hear which past episodes have been your favourites! Essential Reading: <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-allure-of-empire-9780197631621?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chris Suh, The Allure of Empire: American Encounters with Asians in the Age of Transpacific Expansion and Exclusion (2023).</a> Recommended Reading: <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469630274/the-burden-of-white-supremacy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">David C. Atkinson, The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States (2016).</a> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/between-two-empires-9780195159400?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eiichiro Azuma, Between Two Empires: Race, History, and Transnationalism in Japanese America (2005).</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nation-Among-Nations-Americas-History/dp/0809072351" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Thomas Bender, A Nation among Nations: America’s Place in World History (2006).</a> <a href="https://books.google.ie/books/about/Pacific_Estrangement_Japanese_and_Americ.html?id=Zb4wKN9hBiIC&amp;redir_esc=y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Akira Iriye, Pacific Estrangement: Japanese and American Expansion, 1897– 1911 (1972).</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Statehood-Immigrant-Nationalism-Sovereignty/dp/0195370007" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Richard S. Kim, The Quest for Sovereignty: Korean Immigration Nationalism and U.S. Sovereignty, 1905– 1945 (2011).</a>

109: Best of: The Allure of Empire

with Scott Reynolds Nelson

While Cathleen and I are working on new content for the podcast—stay tuned, there’s lots of exciting stuff coming—we wanted to take a moment to revisit some of Michael’s excellent past episodes. For my first “best of” pick, I chose Episode 17, Oceans of Grain, which originally aired on March 2, 2022. In this episode, Michael talks with historian Scott Reynolds Nelson about how the global trade in wheat reshaped the modern world. It’s a fascinating look at how the Gilded Age and Progressive Era fit into a much larger story of empire, capitalism, and global connection. When the episode first aired, Russia had just invaded Ukraine, and Nelson’s discussion of the Black Sea grain routes suddenly felt eerily relevant. Listening again now, it’s striking how powerfully this conversation links nineteenth-century global trade to the world we live in today. We hope you’ll enjoy (re)listening as much as we did—and we’d love to know which episodes stand out as your favourites! Essential Reading:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1541646460/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mpc005-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1541646460&amp;linkId=14537ac6a96764b106abc08b19235726" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Scott Reynolds Nelson, Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World (2022).</a> Recommended Reading:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809015935/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mpc005-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0809015935&amp;linkId=82191d70c2e69c11eb5b3078a0bbe701" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Neal Ascherson, The Black Sea&nbsp;(1996).</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075G224N4/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mpc005-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=B075G224N4&amp;linkId=75031747ecf40069493cdea27b1341bd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bettany Hughes, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities (2017).</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198202792/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mpc005-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0198202792&amp;linkId=d04cf1accfc712dbe182182ca39bbfd1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Avner Offer, The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation (1989).</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195168747/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mpc005-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0195168747&amp;linkId=7139d2bb00fde98f1ca4ea5ea4fd08b4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and their Lasting Impact (2004).</a>

108: Best of: Oceans of Grain: Wheat, Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S.

Boyd and I are working on new content for the podcast-we have lots of good stuff planned for the future.But in the meantime, we wanted to take a moment to revisit some of Michael’s excellent content.We each picked two of the previous episodes as our “best of” but we totally acknowledge that we could have picked many more than two; this was a very tough choice, but we hope you enjoy (re)listening as much as we did. And we'd love to know which are your favorite episodes! Christopher McKnight Nichols and Nancy Unger, A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. (John Wiley &amp; Sons, 2017)https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118913994 For a nice short introduction to historical thinking with some more definitions, check out Flannery Burke and Thomas Andrews' Perspectives essay, "What Does it Mean to Think Historically": https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/what-does-it-mean-to-think-historically-january-2007/

107: Best of: “Gilded? Progressive? Let’s Call the Whole thing Off?"

with Cathleen D. Cahill

Think you know the story of women’s suffrage? Think again. In this episode of The Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast, Boyd sits down with co-host Cathleen D. Cahill to discuss her groundbreaking book <a href="https://uncpress.org/9781469659336/recasting-the-vote/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement (UNC Press, 2020)</a>. Cahill’s book challenges the traditional narrative of women’s suffrage by centring the Indigenous, African American, Latina, and Asian American women who organized, mobilized, and redefined the fight for political rights. Cahill introduces us to a cast of remarkable women—Zitkála-Šá, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Carrie Williams Clifford, and Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren—who pushed the fight for the vote beyond white, middle-class reformers. Their activism linked suffrage to sovereignty, citizenship, immigration, and racial justice, recasting the movement as part of a much bigger struggle for equality. Along the way, we explore why the story doesn’t end in 1920 with the Nineteenth Amendment—and why it still matters for today’s fights over voting rights. Further Reading: <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691016757/worlds-of-women?srsltid=AfmBOoroVZLHetWRrCL0zRDvu15FjicSovUGbkN1MNXfCuEtvWVNdJTe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Leila J. Rupp, Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement (1997)</a><a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/martha-s-jones/vanguard/9781549190155/?lens=basic-books" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020)</a><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ida-B-the-Queen/Michelle-Duster/9781982129811" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Michelle Duster, Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells (2021)</a><a href="https://uncpress.org/9781469684055/unceasing-militant-second-edition/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Alison M. Parker, Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell (2020)</a><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/women-and-the-vote-9780198706854?cc=ca&amp;lang=en&amp;" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jad Adams, Women and the Vote: A World History (2014)</a>

106: Recasting the Vote

with Cathleen D. Cahill and Boyd Cothran

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era is a free podcast about the seismic transitions that took place in the United States from the 1870s to 1920s. It's for students, teachers, researchers, history buffs, and anyone who wants to learn more about how our past connects us to the present. It is hosted by Boyd Cothran, professor of U.S. and Global history at York University, and Cathleen D. Cahill, Walter L. Ferree and Helen P. Ferree Professor in Middle-American History at Penn State University.&nbsp;

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