The conference is free and open to the public, but preregistration is required for
on-line access to the pre-circulated papers.

This scholarly gathering celebrates the career, thus far, of Billy G. Smith, former Distinguished Professor of Letters and Science at Montana State University, one of the McNeil Center’s earliest fellows, and self-described “ Dal Wallah, Chef, and Writer of the Purple Sage.” Smith’s work has inspired new approaches to multiple fields: urban history, the “lower sort” and the politically-engaged study of class relations, slavery, demography, print, materialism, quantitative history, and maritime history, among others. After a half-century of methodological and theoretical innovations, we are entering a period of consolidation and reflection, making this an opportune moment to revisit older approaches and findings in light of the more recent scholarship and approaches. Papers and conference discussions will reflect on the legacy and future of social history and address subjects and approaches in the fields that Smith has pioneered.

All sessions will take place at
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies
3355 Woodland Walk
(34th and Sansom Streets)
University of Pennsylvania