Letter from the Editors
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to present the third edition of the Hopkins History Journal! This issue is the
result of months of tireless work by our editorial team and authors to publish outstanding
scholarship and carry forward a growing Hopkins tradition.
This edition features work from every term-paper writing course. From the neglect of
Indigenous perspectives throughout history, to Stalin’s failed attempt to advance propaganda
through music, these five research papers highlight the range and depth of inquiry pursued by
your fellow Hopkins scholars. Many of the authors featured here have also earned recognition
both within and beyond the Hopkins community.
This year, in our effort to expand beyond the journal itself, we hosted our very first launch party to unveil the new edition. We hope this marks the beginning of a yearly tradition accompanying each release. We also encourage readers to visit our website to explore additional scholarly papers published exclusively online. You can revisit our past editions for a true “blast from the past.”
We begin our thanks with Claire Billings and Theo Friedman, our previous editors-in-chief.
Without their remarkable organization and rigorous guidance, the Hopkins History Journal
would quite literally be a blank PDF. We hope future generations of the journal’s editors will
continue to cherish the legendary Google Drive folder. A special thank you goes to Livia Liu, who was roped in to create the cover art (after school on a Friday, no less). Her digital design skills truly know no bounds. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to the faculty and staff who make the Journal possible. We are especially thankful to Mr. Levy for his continued support and enthusiasm, and to Ms. Williams, without whom this beautiful edition would not be in your hands.
We hope you enjoy reading!
Sincerely,
Elona Spiewak and Shriya Vaid
Editors-in-Chief
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About the Cover
This cover includes symbols - land, paper, and migration - which represent the papers in this
issue. A bison, a time-spanning symbol of Native American identity, stands atop mountains made of paper. The land represents the theme of land conflicts included in many of this edition’s works. One “mountain” consists of Cherokee land allotments and shows that, despite centuries of ancestral ties to land, federal recognition of legality rested on mere pieces of paper. Another mountain is a report of shell shock victims during WW1. The remaining paper mountains are pieces of sheet music, referring to Stalin’s failed attempts at propaganda through music. Vertical black lines stand above the paper mountains. One set of these lines is sound waves, representing the value of oral traditions and storytelling amidst paper records and documents. The other set is a fence, symbolic of the LA riots, which in large part originated from inequitable differences between wealthy suburbs and lower-income areas. The lines further constrain the bison, now trapped by both paper land allotments and in a gated enclosure. When looking further up, there are “clouds” of signatures in the sky. Signatures hold significant power over land and their people. Here, this is shown by the ominous blending of the various signatures that dictated various legal and land policies present in this edition’s papers. The red pin, whose vibrant color and different visual style make it stick out from the rest of the land, embodies the expansionist presence in war, colonization, and racial gentrification. The bottommost mountain, as well as the thin streak of fire stemming from the pin, shows the act of burning paper.
Livia Liu, Cover Design