This article examines the evolution of the novel in the United States using a remarkable new source, the Ngram database. This database, which spans several centuries, draws on the 15 million books that Google has scanned. It allows researchers to look at year-to-year fluctuations in the use of particular words. Using one of the available filters, the article is based on English-language books published in the United States between 1800 and 2008. But making sense of these data requires a framework. That framework is provided by the four periods that emerge from much recent writing on the novel. Four epochs—the sentimental era (1789–1860), the genteel era (1860–1915), the modern era (1915–60), and the postmodern era (1960–)—define the evolution of the novel and, more broadly, changes in American society and values. The article argues that a study of key words drawn from the Ngram database confirms the existence of these periods and deepens our understanding of them.

The integration of women and African Americans into the politically active southern electorate in the 1960s and the 1970s was a turning point in the rise of the “New South” and essential to the establishment of a democratic political process in the region. Whereas there are numerous studies of the reenfranchisement of African Americans in the South in the literature, temporal changes in the gender gap in southern political participation have received less attention. Gender inequality in voting has historically been greatest in the South and was more resistant to change over time. This study is the first to examine the intersection of gender and racial inequality in political participation in the South over a period spanning several decades. Building on previous theories of political participation, including the civic voluntarism model and the strategic mobilization perspective, we develop and test a conceptual model based on the interplay between individual characteristics and the broader institutional context. Using data from the American National Election Studies, we examine racial differences in the gender gap in southern political participation over time using hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical implications for the study of gender and racial inequality in political participation.

For nearly two centuries the United States was a democracy that institutionalized in law inequality between racially defined segments of the population. This article shows that such racial closure was causally linked to the workings of a party system in which one party was organized as an interregional alliance for the principles and practices of white supremacy. It does so through a detailed analysis of three historical outcomes: (1) variation in the establishment of racial closure laws across the North during the antebellum period, (2) the elimination of racial closure laws in the North after the Civil War, and (3) the failed attempt in the postbellum South to overcome racial closure in voting. Throughout the analysis of these three outcomes, the article shows that the party model conforms to the empirical record better than three major alternatives that emphasize the causal power of public opinion (electorate model), elite bargaining and consensus (elite model), and the racial preferences of the white working class (class model).

Some of the most severely affected communities in the world during the 1918–19 influenza pandemic were in Labrador and Alaska. Although these two regions are on the opposite ends of North America, a cultural continuum in the Inuit populations extends throughout the North American Arctic. Both regions contain other population groups, however, and because of these similarities and differences, a comparison of their experiences during the pandemic provides new insights into how culture and environment may influence patterns of spread of infectious disease. We describe here analyses of the patterns of influenza mortality in 97 Alaska communities and 37 Labrador communities. The Alaska communities are divided into five geographic regions corresponding to recognized cultural groups in the region; the Labrador communities are separated into three regions that vary in the degree of admixture between European and indigenous (primarily Inuit) groups. In both Alaska and Labrador mortality was substantially higher than the worldwide average of 2.5–5 percent. Average mortality ranged from less than 1 percent to 38 percent at the regional level in Alaska and from 1 percent to 75 percent at the regional level in Labrador with up to 90 percent mortality in some local communities in both Alaska and Labrador. A number of factors influencing this heterogeneous experience are discussed, including the impact of weather and geography; attempts to protect communities by implementing quarantine policies; accessibility of health care; nutritional deficiencies; cultural factors, such as settlement patterns, seasonal activities, and ethnicity; and exposure to earlier outbreaks of influenza or other diseases that may have increased or lessened the impact of influenza in 1918–19.