Research: Publications
Those essays listed with hyperlinks are available as PDF files. Contact Jim Williams for the current password to access the files.
- Current research in progress includes books on the reading and eating habits of Harry and Bess Truman, on how the Dutch dealt with diversity in the seventeenth-century Atlantic world, and on oral history projects at Harry S Truman National Historic Site (National Park Service) and at Westminster College and the Churchill Memorial (Fulton, Missouri).
- "Tyranny or Freedom? Presidential Power and Community Relations in the Firing of Philip Mankin," in Janice M. Leone, ed., Middle Tennessee State University: A Centennial Legacy (Murfreesboro, TN: Twin Oaks Press, 2011), 171-192.
- "Coerced Sex and Gendered Violence in New Netherland," in Merril D. Smith, ed., Sex without Consent: Rape and Sexual Coercion in America (New York, 2001), 61-80.
- "An Atlantic Perspective on the Jewish Struggle for Rights and Opportunities in Brazil, New Netherland, and New York," in Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering, eds., Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450 to 1800 (New York, 2001), 369-393.
- Entries for David de Vries, Peter Minuit, and Arent van Curler in American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1999).
- "'Abominable Religion' and Dutch (In)tolerance: The Jews and Petrus Stuyvesant," de Halve Maen, 71:4 (Winter 1998), 85-91.
- "Academic Itinerancy and Mentoring in the Gay Nineties," Radical History Review 72 (1998), 12-20.
- "Teaching a Cross-Cultural History Course on Indian, African, and European Women in Early America: One Approach with Bibliography," D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, Occasional Papers in Curriculum Series, No. 20 (January 1996), 9-28.
- "Great Doggs and Mischievous Cattle: Domesticated Animals and Indian-European Relations in New Netherland and New York," New York History, 76 (1995), 245-264.
- "Dutch Attitudes toward Indians, Africans, and Other Colonists in New Netherland, 1624-1664," in Rosemarijn Hoefte and Johanna C. Kardux, eds., Connecting Cultures: The Netherlands in Five Centuries of Transatlantic Exchange (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1994), 23-50.
- Book reviews in Itinerario (2002),History: Reviews of New Books (1995, 1996,1997, 1999, 2000) and Religious Studies Review (1992).
Research: Presentations
- "Swimming Upstream: Migrating Congressional Records in a Proprietary Database to an Open Source System," Society of American Archivists annual meeting, San Diego, August 2012.
- Veterans History Project/Library of Congress roundtable discussion participant, National Council on Public History, Pensacola, April 2011.
- "Global Marriage Ties in the Context of European Expansion: New Netherland, 1630-1664," World History Association annual meeting, San Diego, June 2010.
- "Understanding Lion Gardiner's World and the Role of Cultural Chameleons in Early Modern European Expansion," conference on Lion Gardiner, SUNY Stony Brook, 2009.
- "Lessons from the Dutch: Religious Toleration and Economic Efficiency," in teaching roundtable on "Integrating Comparative Colonial Experiences into the Teaching of Early American History," Society of Early Americanists conference, Bermuda, 2009.
- paper presentation, annual meeting of the American Democracy Project, June 2007.
- "Cultural Chameleons in the Early Modern World: The Case of Isaac Allerton," annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Miami, March 2007.
- "Dutch Communication Networks in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World," Atlantic History: Soundings conference, Harvard University, August 2005.
- "The Fall of New Sweden," Lost Colonies Conference, University of Pennsylvania, April 2004.
- "The Dutch Atlantic," American Historical Association--Pacific Coast Branch meeting, Honolulu, August 2003.
- "World Travelers and the Shaping of Dutch Culture in New Amsterdam," biennial meeting of the Society of Early Americanists, Providence, Rhode Island, April 2003.
- "Portuguese Jewish Communities in Dutch Atlantic Ports, 1650-1700," at the conference "Port Jews and Jewish Communities in Cosmopolitan Maritime Trading Centres," University of Cape Town, South Africa, January 2003.
- "Citizenship and Culture at a Dutch Crossroads: The Transatlantic Experience of European and African Residents of New Netherland, 1625-1675" at the conference "Citizens, Nations and Cultures: Transatlantic Perspectives," Maastricht Centre for Transatlantic Studies, Maastricht, The Netherlands, October 2002.
- "The Atlantic World: An Idea in Need of Conceptualization," Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, Huntington Library, February 2002.
- "New Amsterdam, a Nexus of the Dutch Atlantic World," and "Myth: The Dutch Brought Religious Tolerance to New Netherland," First Gotham History Festival, New York, October 2001.
- "New Amsterdam, a Nexus of the Dutch Atlantic World," annual conference of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, University of Glasgow, Scotland, July 2001.
- "Jews, Lutherans, and Calvinists in the Dutch Atlantic World," invited lecture at the conference "Jews and Pietists in Dialogue in Enlightenment America," Penn State University, October 1999.
- "Valentine and Orson: Or, How Dutch Colonists Transformed Two Delaware Indians into Characters from a French Romance," Organization of American Historians annual meeting, Toronto, April 1999.
- "'Abominable Religion' and Dutch (In)tolerance: The Jews and Petrus Stuyvesant," 21st Rensselaerswijck Seminar, New York State Library, Sept. 1998.
- "Valentine, Orson, and Dutch Colonization," Department of English, University of Puerto Rico, March 1998.
- "Jewish Merchant Communities in the Dutch Atlantic World: Amsterdam, Brazil, and New Netherland," Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Atlanta, October 1997.
- "The Jewish Struggle for Equality in New Netherland and New York," invited lecture for the conference "The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West," John Carter Brown Library, June 18, 1997.
- "Public Bess versus Private Bess: Using Oral History to Discover the Real Bess Truman," National Council on Public History annual meeting, Albany, May 3, 1997.
- "Dutch Brazilian Jewish Refugees and the Struggle for Equality in New Netherland," American Historical Association annual meeting, New York, January 5, 1997.
- "How Dutch Was It? The Cultural Struggle for New Netherland," American Studies Association annual meeting, Kansas City, Missouri, October 31, 1996.
- "The Struggle to Impose a Corporate Dutch Identity on the Diverse Peoples of New Netherland," Conference on New York State History, New Paltz, June 8, 1996.
- "Identity as Power: Defining, Defending, and Expanding Dutchness in the Early Middle Colonies," Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, Minneapolis, April 19, 1996.
- "Dutch Clergy As Cultural Mediators with Indian, Swedish, and English Neighbors of New Netherland," Institute of Early American History and Culture conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 4, 1995.
- "'An Imaginative Concept' in Progress: A Perspective on the Churchill Memorial's First Third-Century," invited lecture at the 25th anniversary of the Churchill Memorial at Westminster College, May 14, 1994.
- "Domesticated Animals and Indian-European Relations in the Early Hudson Valley," Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, August 7, 1993.
- "Dutch, Indian, and English Religious Cultural Development in Seventeenth-Century New Netherland and New York," Organization of American Historians annual meeting, Anaheim, April 15, 1993.
- "Dutch Attitudes toward Indians and Other Colonists in Early America," the international conference "Five Centuries of Interaction between the Low Countries and the Americas, 1492-1992," University of Leiden, The Netherlands, June 5, 1992.
- "Religion and Culture: Dutch-Indian Contact in New Netherland," the seminar of the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, April 24, 1992.