The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Latest Episodes:

108: Best of: Oceans of Grain: Wheat, Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. Nov 19, 2025

Show notes

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:

Scott Reynolds Nelson, Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World (2022).

Recommended Reading:

Neal Ascherson, The Black Sea (1996).

Bettany Hughes, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities (2017).

Avner Offer, The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation (1989).

Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and their Lasting Impact (2004).

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107: Best of: “Gilded? Progressive? Let’s Call the Whole thing Off?" Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

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. (JohnWiley & 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/

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106: Recasting the Vote Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

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 Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement (UNC Press, 2020). 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:

Leila J. Rupp, Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement (1997)

Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020)

Michelle Duster, Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells (2021)

Alison M. Parker, Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell (2020)

Jad Adams, Women and the Vote: A World History (2014)

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105: The Sentimental State Oct 07, 2025

Show notes

Today Cathleen interviews Elizabeth Garner Masarik, about her book, The Sentimental State: How Women-Led Reform Created the American Welfare State (University of Georgia Press, 2024), which is the 2025 winner of SHGAPE's H. Wayne Morgan Book Prize. For more information about the Society's three book awards (deadlines in October) see https://www.shgape.org/prizes-awards/

Books mentioned by Dr. Masarik in today's interview:

Katherine G. Aiken, Harnessing the Power of Motherhood: The National Florence Crittenton Mission, 1883-1925 (University of Tennessee Press, 1998)
Brian Balogh, The Associational State: American Governance in the Twentieth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)
Regina Kunzel, Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalization of Social Work, 1890-1945 (Yale UP, 1993)
Rickie Solinger, Wake up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade (Routledge, 1992)
Molly Ladd Taylor, Raising a Baby the Government Way: Mothers’ Letters to the Children’s Bureau, 1915-1932 (Rutgers University Press, 1986)
Jane Tomkins, Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790-1860 (Oxford UP, 1985)

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104: The Voyage of the Edwin Fox Sep 24, 2025

Show notes

Hello listeners! Boyd and Cathleen are back and looking forward to giving you more regular content this fall. This week, Cathleen interviews Boyd about his recent book, The Voyage of the Edwin Fox: How An Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization (UNC 2023). In this sweeping story of globalization seen from the deck of an ordinary ship, the small details, individual people, and multiple connections that made up this tumultuous moment in history become clear.

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103: Gilded Age Architect Richard Morris Hunt Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Boyd and Cathleen talk to Leslie Jones, Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator at The Preservation Society of Newport County, about the society's new exhibit: Richard Morris Hunt: In A New Light. Through the conversation we learned more about this important Gilded Age architect and his vision for American national identity that visible through his architectural projects, the organizations he helped found, and the large collection of his papers, many of which are on display here. The exhibit will run from May 30 – November 2, 2025 at Rosecliff Mansion in Newport.

For more information, follow this link: https://www.newportmansions.org/events/richard-morris-hunt-in-a-new-light/

One book that Leslie Jones mentioned, was Sam Waters's The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt, which can be found here: https://gilesltd.com/product/gilded-life-richard-morris-hunt

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Introducing New Hosts Boyd and Cathleen Jun 11, 2025

Show notes

Cathleen Cahill and Boyd Cothran introduce themselves and lay out their plans for the Gilded Age & Progressive Era podcast over the next few months, including an upcoming interview with Leslie Jones, curator of the Newport Preservation Society's new exhibit about Gilded Age architect Richard Morris Hunt. Cathleen and Boyd also offer their gratitude to podcast creator and former host, Michael Cullinane, for trusting them with the podcast. They also thank former podcast intern Michael Connolly from Loyola University in Chicago; H-SHGAPE List Editor and host of another great podcast, Dig History, Elizabeth Masarik; and SHGAPE president ,Stacy Cordery, for their advice. Finally, they give their new contact information and invite feedback about the podcast and future episodes. Cathleen can be reached at cdcahill@psu.edu and is active on LinkedIn (Cathleen Cahill) and BlueSky (cathleendcahill.bsky.social) while Boyd can be reached at cothran@yorku.ca. Finally, the podcast's website can be found at https://www.shgape.org/the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era-podcast/

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Update! May 27, 2025

Show notes

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101st Episode: Anniversary and Update Apr 15, 2025

Show notes

This episode marks the show's anniversary and after nearly five years of production, host Michael Patrick Cullinane explains where the show might go from here.

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When Coins were King Apr 01, 2025

Show notes

In the Gilded Age, the coinage of gold and silver had real implications for the economy. Mike Moran joins the show to discuss his latest book When Coins Were King and how the bonanza in mines had a reaction in the Treasury.

Essential Reading:

Michael Moran, When Coins Were King (2025).

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