History, Heritage, and Culture Coordinator
Linda Upham-Bornstein
Northern New Hampshire has been my home for most of my adult life. The region’s rich history, heritage, and culture were the impetus for my pursuit of a Ph.D. in United States history. My dissertation, “The Taxpayer as Reformer: ‘Pocketbook Politics’ and the Law, 1860 – 1940,” examines taxpayers as political and legal actors, who saw paying taxes as a source of political legitimacy and empowerment, and the development and expansion of the taxpaying citizen’s right to hold public officials accountable. While I am primarily a legal and socio-political historian, my research and teaching also embrace labor, economic, and immigration history.
My expertise and activities as an historian, however, reach well beyond the university. Partnering with my local community, I acquired extensive experience in public history and heritage studies. In 1992, I worked with others to establish the Northern Forest Heritage Park in Berlin, New Hampshire, whose stated mission is to “preserve and interpret the history of the working forest and celebrate the multi-cultural heritage of the Great North Woods region.” I also wrote the Park’s interpretative plan. I served as a consultant on a number of public history and preservation projects for the city of Berlin. As the history, heritage, and culture coordinator for the Center for Rural Partnerships, I look forward to continuing to work on northern New Hampshire history and heritage projects.
In 2007, I published an article, “‘Men of Families”: The Intersection of Labor Conflict and Race in the Norfolk Dry Dock Affair,” in Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, which examines slavery, labor, and ideas of whiteness in the antebellum period. The following year Historical New Hampshire published my article “Citizens with a ‘Just Cause’: The New Hampshire Farmer-Labor Party in Depression-era Berlin,” which investigates how the efforts of concerned citizens, who formed a taxpayers’ association and prevailed in a taxpayers’ lawsuit against city officials, created the requisite critical political mass to sustain a viable third-party political protest movement. I have presented papers at conferences of the Organization of American Historians, the American Society for Legal History, the Northeast Law and Society Organization, and the British Association for American Studies.
Contact:
Office Phone: (603) 535-3274
Email: luphambornstein[at]plymouth[dot]edu
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