(Ralph Keeler, via) |
Saturday, April 14, 2012
BAAS 2012: Missing Ralph Keeler
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Guest Lecture: Queen's University Belfast
On Wednesday March 14th I'm going to be travelling to Queen's University Belfast to give a paper as part of their American History Colloquium. I'll be talking about outlaw Joseph Thompson Hare, pictured above. The full title is: "'We raked the wilderness': The Dying Confession of Joseph Hare and the Image of the Highwayman in the Antebellum South". It starts at 4pm, and, I believe, is in Peter Froggatt Centre (PFC) 2/018.
This paper comes out of work I was doing last summer, so it'll be nice to finally give it a public airing. And should you wish to make the acquaintance of Hare and his misadventures, there's a version of his story contained here, in P. R. Hamblin's 1836 collection United States Criminal History; Being a True Account of the Most Horrid Murders, Piracies, High-Way Robbers, &c. (Fayetteville, Mason & De Puy). Enjoy. You'll be hearing more about him in due course.
This paper comes out of work I was doing last summer, so it'll be nice to finally give it a public airing. And should you wish to make the acquaintance of Hare and his misadventures, there's a version of his story contained here, in P. R. Hamblin's 1836 collection United States Criminal History; Being a True Account of the Most Horrid Murders, Piracies, High-Way Robbers, &c. (Fayetteville, Mason & De Puy). Enjoy. You'll be hearing more about him in due course.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Coming Soon: Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers
It's been a while in the planning, but I'm very pleased to say that Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers from Charlotte Temple to The Da Vinci Code, co-edited with my colleague Professor Sarah Churchwell, will be published later this year by Continuum. Above, a sneak peak of the cover. Below, a little bit about the collection.
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Studies in American Culture: “Bring Our Country Back”: Country Music, Conservatives, and the Counter-Culture in 1968.
My article, '“Bring Our Country Back”: Country Music, Conservatives, and the Counter-Culture in 1968', has been published in Studies in American Culture (34.1, October 2011).
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
"All distinction of colour was lost"
(via NYPL) |
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Review: Times Higher Education
Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century has been reviewed in Times Higher Education by Professor Helen Taylor (Exeter). She describes the book as an "important new study", and writes:
"Although New Orleans' early colonial and more recent years are well documented, Ruys Smith's book is one of only a handful of 19th-century chronicles. It covers the key events and phenomena that gave the city such resonance in the global imagination [...] When so much hagiographic and melodramatic cultural production ("literary treacle", in the geographer Peirce F. Lewis' words) has been poured over New Orleans, Ruys Smith deserves credit for this clear-sighted and judicious survey of its most complex and fascinating century."You can read the full review here.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
History Today: The Big Uneasy
History Today, August 2011 |
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
BBC History Magazine: New Orleans in 1858
My travel guide to New Orleans in 1858 is out today in this month's BBC History Magazine (June 2011). This was a fun piece to write, not least because it threw up some interesting research questions. Much of the material I had to hand because of Southern Queen, but it also caused me to have to think about some peculiar specifics.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Apocalypse on the Mississippi!
Having not long completed a book chapter on the significance of the Mississippi River for new religious movements in America in the years before the Civil War, I got a profound shock of recognition when I read this ABC report about Harold Camping’s predictions of the forthcoming apocalypse. One of the signs that the end is nigh?
The Mississippi River: Recent flooding has prompted some speculation that pervasive crop destruction is sure to follow, resulting in the widespread famine that's scheduled to help usher in the Apocalypse.In their own way, these kind of pronouncements fit into a significant American tradition. There is a long history of prophesying Armageddon, particularly along or in relation to the Mississippi. Indeed, the current interest in the possibility of imminent rapture is as nothing compared to events in the nineteenth century, as the example of William Miller attests.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Kindle Editions
The release of Southern Queen might be just around the corner, but Kindle editions of my other two books have just been added on Amazon. Click on the covers above to buy or for a free preview. And stay tuned for more updates soon.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Review: Gateway: The Magazine of the Missouri History Museum
River of Dreams was reviewed in issue 28 of Gateway, the magazine of the Missouri History Museum. David Lobbig writes:
"Thomas Ruys Smith vividly connects his readers to an important time in the explosive peopling of our nation [...] which taken together is like the relearning of a favourite story or song long forgotten [...] What we know in more modern terms as our "strong, brown god" has a rich, important history and myth hardly known. It is a river flowing with archetypes. Perhaps it is not possible for us to see the river with the same eyes as those who once strove against its strength and unpredictability to be sustained by its life. But those people saw their dreams reflected in the Mississippi, and this accounting gives a proper perspective so that readers today, sitting on its banks, may see themselves more clearly."
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Review: Journal of Illinois History
Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men has been reviewed in the Journal of Illinois History. Greg Hall writes:
“To bring to life the cultural world of the Mississippi River Valley of the nineteenth century is no easy task […] Thomas Ruys Smith does this with a compilation of stories that focus on specific elements of that cultural world that in some ways are quite alien to our own. Yet the legacy of the period can still resonate within our historical memory […] Therefore it is a significant contribution to our understanding of American cultural history that Smith provides here, because before the cowboy and the gunslinger, there was the riverboat gambler.”You can read the whole review here.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Guest Post: Mardi Gras in 1873
Waiting for the parade in 1873 - Edward King's The Great South |
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Southern Queen: More Advance Praise
I'm very pleased to say that Southern Queen has garnered some more advance praise, this time from Thomas C. Buchanan, author of the essential Black Life on the Mississippi: Slaves, Free Blacks, and the Western Steamboat World:
"Thomas Ruys Smith puts his readers in the minds of the many travellers who visited the city, allowing us to understand the creation of the myth of New Orleans as well as its physical reality. He deftly mixes engaging storytelling and thoughtful historical analysis on every page. The book is a major contribution to the history of the Queen City."
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Southern Queen: More Advance Praise
The City of New Orleans, Currier & Ives, 1885 |
It's easy to get lost in New Orleans. Even a native, such as myself, can become confused not only by the condition and direction of the streets but also by their names – names that recall the diverse cultures that have made the Southern Queen so unique among American cities. A walk or drive or streetcar ride quickly becomes a trek through history.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Review: Year's Work in English
River of Dreams got a nod in Year's Work in English Studies 89 (2010):
"In recent years, Twain's travel writing has received renewed attention in scholarship. Especially strong examples of this trend are Thomas Ruys Smith's River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain..."
Monday, February 07, 2011
Southern Queen: Advance Praise
Above, the first draft of the jacket for my new book, Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century (click for bigger). Below, some advance praise from J. Mark Souther, author of the excellent New Orleans on Parade: Tourism and the Transformation of the Crescent City (Louisiana State University Press, 2006):
"Richly appointed with voices of the city's denizens and of those who visited, Southern Queen reveals the myriad ways that the nineteenth century shaped the New Orleans we know today. In this highly readable book, Smith offers a welcome synthesis of the scholarship on this important epoch in the history of the Crescent City."
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Southern Queen in the Continuum Catalogue
Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century is featured in a variety of Continuum catalogues this season (here), but this spread from the US Trade and Academic Highlights Catalogue (pdf here) is the most fulsome (click for bigger):
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
River of Dreams: 75 Great Literature Books Published by LSU Press
As part of their 75th anniversary celebrations, Louisiana State University Press has put together a series of lists highlighting "75 great LSU Press titles in various subjects." I'm very proud to say that River of Dreams was selected as one of their 75 great literature books.
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