Archive - After the Gold Rush

Say Gay! California History: Charles Warren Stoddard

Charles Warren Stoddard wrote the first acknowledged American novel about openly gay characters and lived out in a time that had not yet heard the word…

Jun 26 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

May 2025

Swing Around the Circle & NO KINGS Day

The similarities between the current lawless occupant of the White House and the unelected post-Civil War president Andrew Johnson are many. They are…

May 30 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

1866 - the Memphis and New Orleans massacres

It was reported as starting with “a shooting altercation between white policemen and Black soldiers recently mustered out of the Union Army.” It ended…

May 29 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

March 2025

International Women's Day: California Heroines

As ELON-FELON tries to eliminate all history involving anyone but white men, I want to shout out just a few of the powerhouse California women I’ve been…

Mar 8 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

February 2025

Frederick Douglass and Kendrick Lamar

How 'bout that halftime show?

Feb 14 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

Andrew Johnson deconstructs Reconstruction

There’s a national lament going on, going something like, “How did we get HERE?” The real question is, “How did we get BACK here?”

Feb 13 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

Lincoln's inaugural address inaugurates Civil War

Frederick Douglass: Some thought we had in Mr. Lincoln the nerve and decision of an Oliver Cromwell, but the result shows we have merely a continuation…

Feb 12 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

January 2025

Lincoln "considers" Emancipation

One key to the fight ahead is looking back to see how we ever made social and moral progress in the first place. Studying Abraham Lincoln’s surprisingly…

Jan 29 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

California, forever

Taking heart from California history: The 1906 earthquake and devastating fires that followed leveled San Francisco. The city miraculously rebuilt…

Jan 14 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

November 2024

Thanksgiving, 1863 - San Francisco

California has always seen this dubious holiday from a distance.

Nov 29, 2024 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

October 2024

The Election of 1868

“History doesn’t repeat itself. But it often rhymes.” - Mark Twain -- It hardly seems that this election could be more existentially tense or…

Oct 31, 2024 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

August 2024

George Hearst & Mark Twain in the Comstock

George Hearst's lifelong friendship with the young Mark Twain was forged in that great melting pot known as the Comstock. Technically located in Nevada…

Aug 20, 2024 •

Alexandra Sokoloff

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