Robert Chiles – författare

The Revolution of '28 explores the career of New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee Alfred E. Smith. Robert Chiles peers into Smith's work and uncovers a distinctive strain of American progressivism that resonated among urban, ethnic, working-class Americans in the early twentieth century. The book charts the rise of that idiomatic progressivism during Smith's early years as a state legislator through his time as governor of the Empire State in the 1920s, before proceeding to a revisionist narrative of the 1928 presidential campaign, exploring the ways in which Smith's gubernatorial progressivism was presented to a national audience. As Chiles points out, new-stock voters responded enthusiastically to Smith's candidacy on both economic and cultural levels.Chiles offers a historical argument that describes the impact of this coalition on the new liberal formation that was to come with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, demonstrating the broad practical consequences of Smith's political career. In particular, Chiles notes how Smith's progressive agenda became Democratic partisan dogma and a rallying point for policy formation and electoral success at the state and national levels. Chiles sets the record straight in The Revolution of '28 by paying close attention to how Smith identified and activated his emergent coalition and put it to use in his campaign of 1928, before quickly losing control over it after his failed presidential bid.

Since 1919, New York History has been the foremost scholarly journal on the Empire State's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press, and working closely with staff from the New York State Museum, New York History's mission is unifying the diverse field of New York State history and meeting the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and all those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history. The journal promotes and interprets the state's history through the publication of historical research and case studies dealing with New York State, as well as its relationship to national and international events. New York History, published twice a year, presents articles dealing with every aspect of New York State history, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, and media projects with a New York focus.

Since 1919, New York History has been the foremost scholarly journal on the Empire State's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press, and working closely with staff from the New York State Museum, New York History's mission is unifying the diverse field of New York State history and meeting the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and all those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history. The journal promotes and interprets the state's history through the publication of historical research and case studies dealing with New York State, as well as its relationship to national and international events. New York History, published twice a year, presents articles dealing with every aspect of New York State history, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, and media projects with a New York focus.

Since 1919, New York History has been the foremost scholarly journal on the Empire State's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press, and working closely with staff from the New York State Museum, New York History's mission is unifying the diverse field of New York State history and meeting the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and all those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history. The journal promotes and interprets the state's history through the publication of historical research and case studies dealing with New York State, as well as its relationship to national and international events. New York History, published twice a year, presents articles dealing with every aspect of New York State history, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, and media projects with a New York focus.

Since 1919, New York History has been the foremost scholarly journal on the Empire State's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press, and working closely with staff from the New York State Museum, New York History's mission is unifying the diverse field of New York State history and meeting the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and all those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history. The journal promotes and interprets the state's history through the publication of historical research and case studies dealing with New York State, as well as its relationship to national and international events. New York History, published twice a year, presents articles dealing with every aspect of New York State history, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, and media projects with a New York focus.

Since 1919, New York History has been the foremost scholarly journal on the Empire State's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press, and working closely with staff from the New York State Museum, New York History's mission is unifying the diverse field of New York State history and meeting the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and all those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history. The journal promotes and interprets the state's history through the publication of historical research and case studies dealing with New York State, as well as its relationship to national and international events. New York History, published twice a year, presents articles dealing with every aspect of New York State history, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, and media projects with a New York focus.

Since 1919, New York History has been the foremost scholarly journal on the Empire State's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press, and working closely with staff from the New York State Museum, New York History's mission is unifying the diverse field of New York State history and meeting the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and all those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history. The journal promotes and interprets the state's history through the publication of historical research and case studies dealing with New York State, as well as its relationship to national and international events. New York History, published twice a year, presents articles dealing with every aspect of New York State history, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, and media projects with a New York focus.

Since 1919, New York History has been the foremost scholarly journal on the Empire State's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press, and working closely with staff from the New York State Museum, New York History's mission is unifying the diverse field of New York State history and meeting the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and all those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history. The journal promotes and interprets the state's history through the publication of historical research and case studies dealing with New York State, as well as its relationship to national and international events. New York History, published twice a year, presents articles dealing with every aspect of New York State history, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, and media projects with a New York focus.

One significant yet challenging element of studying New York State is the centrality of its history to the broader sweep of American life. This prominence leaves many episodes in New York's past well-known and intensely studied. However, as the articles in the Winter 2022-2023 issue of New York History (103.2) reminds us, innovative methodologies and new documentary evidence ceaselessly open opportunities for fresh insights into the Empire State's rich past—from the social history of New Netherland to mid-twentieth-century design.

A consistent factor throughout New York State's dynamic history has been the complex interactions between groups with divergent worldviews and conflicting ambitions. Such scenarios have proven at different times to be creative, exploitative, empowering, or contradictory. The Summer 2023 issue of New York History (104.1) offers a rich array of such interactions, with articles offering unique insights from diverse perspectives.

Among the treasures of state-level histories is that they often uncover the idiosyncratic experiences and particular agendas of communities and individuals. This complicates and humanizes well-known historical events while providing new interpretations of old historical themes. This is especially true of New York State, and the Winter 2023–2024 issue of New York History (104.2) offers a panoply of studies in how regional scholarship adds nuance to well-known stories while furnishing revised interpretations of the past.

One exciting branch of Empire State scholarship is critical explorations of the nature of community across New York history—offering granular details on the diversity factors that shaped New Yorkers' lives and that draw attention to formerly obscure communities or add nuance and complexity to the stories of well-known groups and places. The articles of the Summer 2024 issue of New York History (105.1) feature a wealth of such studies.

There is much still to be discovered about the Empire State's past, and the Winter 2024 issue of New York History (105.2) reinforces the power of adopting new perspectives and methodologies to illumine broader trends and to complicate existing narratives. The articles inside move from revolutionary-era state-building to material culture and social history; from the complexities of the immigrant experience to the disparate radicalisms of the 1960s.

More than two hundred and fifty years after the revolution began, Fire and Freedom invites readers to rediscover America's journey to independence. Showcasing New York's central role in the revolution, Fire and Freedom highlights the stories of people and events previously hidden from popular view, unveiling a new vision of this famous narrative. Many of the revolution's key moments can be traced to New York: city crowds rioted against colonial taxation and George Washington spent one-third of the war in and around the soon-to-be "Empire State." Beyond these well-known players and moments, however, lies a trove of new information on New York's hidden revolutionary stories. With a foreword by acclaimed historian Russell Shorto and seven fascinating chapters on a range of subjects, we see that events off the battlefield—a strategic retreat, a destructive fire, and displays of independence—were just as meaningful as the fighting itself. State power and politics redefined conceptions of loyalty and allegiance. The resistance and agency of Indigenous and enslaved populations shaped New York's postwar era. These diverse stories are tied together by the defining war, but they stretch far beyond its confines and even further beyond our common understandings. By providing a more comprehensive look into New York's influence on the era, the contributors to this book expand and evolve the meaning and significance of the revolution. Exciting and insightful, Fire and Freedom is a must-read addition to the great revolutionary saga.

Engagement with history can help to inform and enlighten contemporary discourse. At the same time, discourse can affect, and challenge, historical scholarship and institutions. The articles of the Summer 2025 issue of New York History (106.1) show how historical work remains vital and essential in the face of contemporary challenges.