Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains

Kansas History is a collaboration of the Kansas Historical Foundation (Kansas State Historical Society, Inc.) and the Department of History at Kansas State University.

This peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, which has received awards from the Western History Association and the American Association for State and Local History, publishes new research on Kansas and Great Plains history and offers well-illustrated articles that appeal to both the serious student and the general reader. It appears quarterly. To contact the editorial offices at Kansas State University, please email khjournal@ksu.edu or call (785) 532-0375.

Previous issues are posted online one year after publication on the Kansas Historical Society's website. Indexes for each volume (i.e. four issues) and abstracts of the forthcoming issue are also available on their website.

Editorial Staff

Editors

Editor Kristen Epps is an Associate Professor of History at Kansas State University. She specializes in the history of slavery, the sectional conflict, and the Civil War in the West. Her first book, Slavery on the Periphery: The Kansas-Missouri Border in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras, was published in 2016 by the University of Georgia Press as part of the Early American Places series. She has taught at the University of Central Arkansas, Colorado State University-Pueblo, and the University of Kansas (where she completed her Ph.D. in 2010). She has also held positions at the Kansas Historical Society, The Journal of the Civil War Era , and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. She currently has a book on Kansas under advance contract with the University Press of Kansas, co-authored with Jim Leiker, expected to appear in 2024. Her email is kkepps@ksu.edu.

Associate Editor Eric Brandom is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Kansas State University. He wears multiple hats. He joined the department in 2013, having earned his Ph.D. at Duke University in 2012, and has taught Caribbean as well as European and ancient Roman history. His research is in modern European intellectual history, particularly of political and social thought, especially in France. Recent publications include a book chapter on Aimé Césaire, articles in History of Political Thought and French Historical Studies, and as co-author, Georges Sorel’s “Study on Vico”: Translation, Edition, and Introduction (Brill, 2019). His email is ebrandom@ksu.edu.

Book Review Editor Chase Billingham is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Wichita State University. His research examines educational stratification, neighborhood dynamics in American cities, and urban social history, with a particular focus on the history of the city of Wichita. Along with two articles in Kansas History on historical developments in Wichita, Billingham has published sociological and historical scholarship in Urban Studies, Sociology of Education, City & Community, and a wide variety of other outlets. He earned his Ph.D. from Northeastern University in 2013. His email is chase.billingham@wichita.edu.

Student Editorial Assistants

September Gering is a Ph.D. student in the history department of Kansas State University. She studies U.S. foreign policy and national security with a focus on American imperialism. Her background is in history, classics, and archeology with work at museums, research centers, and archaeological sites in Europe, Canada, and her native South Dakota. Her email is sgering@ksu.edu.

Picture of a young white woman with dark hair. Meghan Ward is a senior at KSU, majoring in History and minoring in Anthropology and Hospitality Management. She has almost eight years of museum experience, and she loves getting to talk to people about anything museum and history related. Meghan's specialty is nineteenth-century U.S. history, with a focus on the Plains Wars era and the American Civil War. Her email is wardmeghan24@ksu.edu.

Instructions for Authors

Preparing Your Article

To prepare an article, consider the following criteria. Authors must make a persuasive historical argument that appears early in the article, based on careful use of both primary and secondary sources. Some attention should be paid to previous academic scholarship on the topic (i.e. historiography), although an extensive historiographical analysis is not needed. There must be a balance between summary and analysis. Articles should follow a logical organization (including both intra- and inter-paragraph organization) with clear topic sentences. Writing should be straightforward and concise. Submissions should total approximately 8,000-9,000 words, excluding footnotes. We suggest you download our brief publishing guide. Previously published articles, articles produced with AI/text generative technology, or manuscripts under consideration for publication elsewhere will not be considered.

Manuscripts must be typed on a computer and saved in .doc or .docx (Microsoft Word) format, double spaced in Times New Roman 12 pt. font, with footnotes in the Chicago/Turabian style (notes should also be double spaced). We ask that authors insert notes using the automated feature in Word. No identifying features (author byline, etc.) should appear in the manuscript itself.

Kansas History follows The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press (17th ed., 2017). Submitted articles should follow the manual as closely as possible, particularly with regard to the citation of source material. We have also developed a short style sheet to help with citation formatting. Our full editorial policy and style guide is available on the historical society's website.

Submitting Your Article

To submit, please email your submission to khjournal@ksu.edu as a .doc or .docx (Microsoft Word) file along with either a curriculum vitae (CV) or a short description of who you are and how you became interested in this project. We no longer accept submissions through fax or postal mail. Please allow at least six to eight weeks for a decision, which will be communicated through the editors along with appropriate comments and suggested or required revisions.

Book Review Information

Publishers may send books for review to our editorial offices in Calvin Hall. The address is:

Department of HistoryKansas History Journal, 201D Calvin Hall802 Mid-Campus Drive SouthManhattan, KS 66506-1002

If you are interested in serving as a book reviewer, please contact the book review editor, Chase Billingham, at chase.billingham@wichita.edu.

Social Media

Click the images below for direct links to the Kansas History Journal's social media pages.

Podcast

Due to staffing shortages, we have temporarily suspended our podcast episodes. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to resume new podcast episodes and author interviews at some point in the future. You can listen to previous episodes on our YouTube channel, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.

History of the Journal

Kansas History continues the Kansas Historical Society’s long tradition of quality publications dating to the late nineteenth century. Beginning with the Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society (later known as the Kansas Historical Collections), launched within five years of the Society’s 1875 founding by the Kansas Editors’ and Publishers’ Association, a regular publication was central to the mission of the KSHS. The Collections were published annually until 1931, when the Society introduced a brand-new quarterly, the Kansas Historical Quarterly, a worthy successor and venue for much of the best in Kansas scholarship until 1977. The long legacy continues today in the pages of Kansas History, which published its first issue in 1978.

In 2010, longtime editor Virgil Dean, Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, then-director of Kansas State’s Chapman Center for Rural Studies, and Professor of Kansas History James Sherow (now emeritus) started a conversation over lunch to discuss the potential benefits of moving the editorial offices of the journal out of the KSHS's Topeka office. The Kansas Historical Foundation board and the Kansas Historical Society both approved the move in December 2011. The first issue jointly sponsored by the Kansas Historical Foundation and the Chapman Center for Rural Studies was released in April 2012. In late 2013, the Kansas State editorial offices officially moved out of the Chapman Center to the Department of History. Kansas State manages all of the journal’s editorial activities in Manhattan.